


GUARDIANS OF TIME

by Dalantis



Series: GUARDIANS [2]
Category: Constantine (TV), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Lucifer (TV), Supernatural
Genre: Crossover, Female Protagonist, Gender or Sex Swap, John Constantine Needs A Hug, John Constantine-Centric, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:21:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24167293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dalantis/pseuds/Dalantis
Summary: John Constantine hasn't been the same since losing her best friend. When the Legends come into her life, will this be her chance to set things right?
Relationships: Chas Chandler/John Constantine
Series: GUARDIANS [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1743298
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This will mostly follow the series for a long time until things get closer to the end of the Season 4 and/or Start of Season 5.   
> I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Also, I will be honest, I have no idea how to format this to give italics and bolding, so I apolgize if things aren't as well written as they should be.

GEORGIA, 2017

“Loneliness. Pain. Desperation. These emotions are what motivate you. What kind of a person, is motivated by such things?”  
“I have a tumor, John, my powers… they are what is causing it to grow.”  
“John, save me! Please, John! John!”  
“ASTRA!”  
“I’m a monster, John. An undead monster.”  
“Chas…”  
“Johnny…”  
“Neron, I’ll see you in Hell!”  
“JOHN!”

Johnna Constantine gasped awake, her chest heaving. Her skin was pale and sweat covered as she sat up in bed. A chill ran down her spine.   
Regret. 

Regret could be her middle name at this point in her life and she’s not even twenty-three years old yet. Zed, Chas, Astra… They were only but a few of the people whom she had hurt in her past since the day she was introduced to the occult at fourteen. No, maybe even before that, with the death of her mother. 

“I need a drink,” she groaned, staggering to her feet. 

Nude but for the light sheet wrapped around her body, Johnna made her way down the stairs of the millhouse and into the small kitchen. 

Memories of a better time greeted her, like ghosts that remained soundless, haunting her everyday reality without a single act to show for it, unreachable yet constantly perceived. 

The sound of the outside door opening told her Zed had most likely come to retrieve the last of her boxes. Glancing at the clock, Johnna groaned when she noted it was only seven in the morning, far too early for her blood and yet… if Zed was here, no doubt she had planned not to see John before she left. 

Sure enough, the footsteps slowed as they came down the stairs. Johnna, ignoring her friend, continued to sip at the gin in her hand. 

“Alcohol at seven in the morning. Rough night?”

John sighed, setting the glass down as she reluctantly looked up at the girl whom she had come to consider something of a sister figure the past several months. A sister figure that John was killing by having her use her abilities to help fight the rising darkness. 

Zed, in all her beauty, with those long dark curls and beautiful brown eyes. Only twenty-six and she was suffering daily from a tumor that had formed in her body after using her psychic abilities. Though Zed would never blame John for that, they both knew this would not have happened to her if she hadn’t met John a year and a half ago. 

“I’m fine. Are you here for the last of your boxes?”

Zed nodded, shifting foot to foot. She tried to hide it, but John could read the guilt in her stance. She would have grabbed them and left and probably not said a word. 

“Jim doing well?”

Zed chuckled dryly. “Are you really that interested in him?”

“In his future, sure, and in yours.”

Zed frowned. “He’s good to me, John, and with Chas gone, I just… I need to move on.”

“Yeah… don’t we all,” John snorted, her blond hair plastered to her forehead where her sweat had dried. 

Zed frowned, stepping closer. “Johnna, you know I don’t blame you for Chas or for my tumor, but…”

“But I’m not, not to blame, right?” John asked. 

Zed stopped, hesitant. They both knew it was the truth anyways. 

“Jim is probably waiting outside, isn’t he? Best be going then, pet, don’t want to keep your dearest waiting.”

Zed nodded, her hand dropping from where she had started to extend it, but she knew right now, John would not be open to her affection. Right now, no doubt in her adoptive sister’s eyes, this was a long-predicted betrayal now in live action. 

“Yeah, I guess I should hurry.”

John hummed and took another swig of the alcohol in her hand as Zed turned to walk away. Suddenly though, Zed stopped.

“John?”

Johnna glanced at her.

“I… just, be careful, okay? I don’t know what’s about to happen, but I had a vision last night and…”

John frowned, listening. 

“…I saw you, hurting and lost, with a strange woman. I don’t know who she is, but she had blonde hair and you seemed friendly with one another, but there was a strange energy around you both, as though the very realm you were in was… changing, with each second.”

“Sounds fun,” John coughed, wiping her mouth from the alcoholic leakage. 

“John…”

“Bye Zed,” John interrupted, “Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.”

Zed sighed, knowing it was useless to talk to her sister when she was like this. John, though younger than Zed, had taken Zed in all those months ago and the two had become close like family, alongside Chas, all up until that day. 

Zed walked into her room to grab what remained before returning with two boxes and a bag slung over her shoulder. As she started towards the stairs, she hesitated.   
“Goodbye John, stay safe.”

John said nothing as she listened to the fading steps of her sister, her friend, and the last person John felt she could fully trust, and when the door from the outside clicked shut, John could not hold back the surge of anger and pain. Grabbing the glass of gin that she had only just poured, she hurled it at the wall. Glass shattered upon impact, as John collapsed back into her seat, her hands pulling at her blonde strands in a painful way. She needed to get drunk tonight. Beyond drunk. 

Grabbing a new full bottle of gin, Johnna Constantine staggered her way to the couch and stared up at the mirror as she dropped onto the battered cushions. 

“Chas…”

The mirror, a permanent gateway to the past. It was both a curse and a blessing. 

“My Chas…” she whispered. 

Her beautiful, kind, perfect Chas. He stared back at her from in the mirror and she could not help the sob that escaped her as she imagined him sitting there with her. His smile. His words. His touch. Chas… her Chas. God, she missed him. 

“Chas,” she wept as she guzzled the bottle, “Chas…”

*LEGENDS*

STAR CITY, 2017

Another day, another job. 

Johnna Constantine dressed in her usual long, khaki colored trench coat with her crisp white dress shirt, and short, skin-tight, black skirt with knee length leather boots. The only true splash of color being her long red scarf that she wore loosely around her neck as a calling card. The entire outfit a staple for those who knew the name Constantine. 

As John made her way into the asylum, a storm raging outside, she could hear the screams of those from within its bleak walls, the living and the dead. It brought back memories. Memories that she shoved deep down to keep buried, as they were unwelcomed at this time. 

“Ma’am?” a nurse called.

John slowed and turned to the nurse.

“Visiting hours are over.”

John chanted. “Enforia tenda.”

The woman’s eyes glazed over, and John smiled. 

“You never saw me, and everything is perfectly normal.”

“Perfectly normal…” the woman muttered as she walked away, her movements almost robotic. 

John continued down the hall and stepped into the room she had visited more than once already. 

“Emily?”

The girl sat in the back corner of the room; her knees pulled tightly to her chest.

“Hey sweetheart,” John greeted as she knelt beside the girl. “It’s me again, John.”

The girl stared up at him in silent relief. 

“I didn’t think you would find me after they locked me up in here. His voice it’s so loud. He say’s I can’t fight him.”

Let’s prove the nasty git wrong, shall we? Let’s get you up.”

John helped the young girl to stand and sit on the bed as she grabbed her bag that she had brought with her and withdrew from it a wooden cross. 

“Alright love, this might sting a bit.”

The girl nodded and John felt a surge of pride. The child was strong.

“Exorcizamus te…” she mumbled as she sprayed a sprinkling of holy water at the girl.

As expected, the child began to writhe and scream. The demon within her struggling to fight back as John continued to chant until finally, something changed. 

“You cannot save this one, Constantine,” a gravely voice that was definitely not Emily’s replied. “you’ve already failed her, just as you failed Astra.”

John flinched at the words, her confidence bruised, but her spirit determined. Continuing to chant, she ignored the demon as she raised the cross higher. 

“This vessel is mine,” the demon taunted. “Even now, her soul steps into the dark to join another, a friend of yours, Sara.”

“How do you know Sara? Tell me!” John shouted. “Tell me!”

“Miss!”

John turned, annoyed at being interrupted.

“I don’t know how you got in here, but I have contacted the authorities and will press charges,” the nurse started. 

John sighed and tossed her things back into the bag. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, pet. I can explain. Don’t get your pearls in a twist. If you would look at this here coin…”

“I will do nothing of the…”

John flipped the coin and as the three nurses became mesmerized, John vanished from the room. Ducking between halls, she could only shake her head in wonder. 

“Sara Lance, what the bloody hell have you gotten yourself into now?”


	2. Dahrk Happenings

Central city, 2017

“We’ll get to your demon, but how did you even find me?” Sara questioned as the two walked through the halls of the waverider. 

“Oh, that’s simple,” John answered casually, “I attuned a dowsing dagger to your specific energy and followed it from there.”

“And I thought time travel was weird,” Sara sighed.

John chuckled. “You are not wrong about that, pet.”

Sara rolled her eyes at the nickname, but that was Constantine for you. Ever since Johnna had saved her life nearly a year ago with Oliver’s help, Sara could admit that this girl, who was so, so surprisingly young, was someone that could only be considered both impressive, dangerous, smug, and a bit of a mystery all in one take, and that was only once you truly got to know her. 

And while Sara would never say she truly knew Constantine, she could say she trusted her. 

The inner doors opened as the two walked into the main hub and John’s eyes widened as she looked around in wonder. 

“Blimey, whoo, this is one hell of a jam jar you’ve got here.”

Sara chuckled as the other legends who were in the room, Mick, Len, Amiya, Nate, and Ray looked up upon their entering. 

“I thought we gave the Englishman to the time pigs.”

“That was Rip,” Sara snapped back at Mick, “this is Johnna Constantine.”

“Skinny brit in a trench coat, same difference.”

“Oh, doubtful, mate,” Johnna chuckled. “I doubt Rip Hunter had a body like mine.”

Mick couldn’t help but appraise her as the girl stepped close so that he could appreciate the sight, despite his reservations.

“And besides,” Johnna continued in a flirtatious manner, looking around the room at the others. “I am an accomplished Sorceress, an expert of the occult, and a master exorcist.”

She glanced back at Mick with a cheeky grin. 

“I’m also a Taurus, for those of you taking notes.”

Mick cleared his throat and Johnna chuckled.

“The Anansi Totem,” Johnna noted, her eyes straying to the golden necklace upon the neck of Amiya. “That belongs to…”

“Her granddaughter,” Nate interrupted, “Same totem, different Vixen. She’s from 1942. You were saying about that ‘Sorceress’ thing?”

“Accomplished Sorceress, mate. I am charmed of course, to know another who bears the family name.”

Amiya smiled. “It’s an honor,” she said as she shook the young sorceress’ hand. 

“So, what’s your name, handsome?” she turned to Snart.

Leonard chuckled dryly. “Leonard Snart and I’m taken.”

He walked away with a cold shoulder. 

“I’m not.” 

Everyone looked at Mick, who cleared his throat, suddenly embarrassed, having spoken without much thought. “Uh, this is too much for me. I’m just going to go watch TV.”

Mick hurried away; his ears red, as Johnna watched him go in amusement. 

“So, can I just ask, how old are you?” Ray finally spoke up. “Cause, if I am being honest, you look like you could be sixteen, though I am assuming your older than you look.”

Johnna laughed. “I get that a lot. Well big man, you tell me your name and age and I’ll tell you mine.”

“Oh, uh, well… I’m Ray. Ray Palmer, and I’m twenty-eight.”

“I’m twenty-two,” John answered with a smug look, as everyone in the room choked.

“Your only in your early twenties?!” Sara gaped. “Then last year when you saved me, you were only twenty-one?!”

John cackled. She so did love people’s reactions when she revealed her age. Due to her reputation, people rarely believed her and thought it merely a strange form of magic concealing her true age and appearance. Well… they weren’t fully wrong. After all, sixteen in appearance wasn’t a complete lie. 

*LEGENDS*

“So how did you find about this demon knowing me anyways?” Sara questioned. 

“I broke into the loony bin to perform an exorcism and while I was at it, the demon called your name, Sara. Said you would be slipping into the dark. I thought if Emily’s demon knows you on a first name basis, you might know something that can help me save you both.”

Sara huffed. “I don’t need saving and I am done fighting demons.”

“You think this has something to do with the demon we’re fighting?” Nate spoke up.

John cocked an eyebrow and Sara rolled her eyes. 

“I was speaking metaphorically John, but yes, I did recently visit the spirit world. That is probably how it knows my name and the demon’s name is Mallus.” 

“Mallus?” John repeated. “Smashing. Very handy, demon names. Just what I need to cast this Mallus wanker out. Now I don’t know what you and your dishy lot has gotten yourselves into, but I suggest you leave it to the experts. So, thanks for the tip, I’ve got a girl to save.”

John turned to start walking out, but Sara blocked her way. 

“You said it yourself, John, this is not just any demon and we have been fighting it before you even knew its name. And if this girl is connected to Mallus, she might be able to help us destroy him.”

John frowned. “You want to tag along with me for an exorcism?”

“Yup.”

“Out of the bloody question, love.”

“We gave you its name, so you owe us.”

“Well I gave you your soul, so you owe me indefinitely.”

“All the more reason to help you.”

John sighed and Sara smirked as she noticed Nate giving her a thumbs up in the background.

STAR CITY, 2017

“We will get lucky if Mallus hasn’t cemented himself in the girl, yet.”

“If you want luck, John, you’re on the wrong time ship.”

John chuckled as she withdrew a cigarette. 

“How’s about a light?”

Sara smirked. “Ask Mick, if you want your face burned off.”

John chuckled. “I’ll take my chances, seeing as I’m doomed either way.”

Sara shook her head and Johnna chuckled to herself as she made her way down the hall. She had been on the ship once before, a long time ago. Still, it has been long enough that John figured she would just eventually find someone to ask, in order to point her in the right direction, if not Mick himself first. 

Sure enough, Leonard Snart rounded the corner.

“You again,” he commented with a mix of general annoyance and slight curiosity.

“Me,” John confirmed with a smile. “I wanted to find Mick, know where he is?”

Snart huffed a laugh. “Flirting, are we? Mick is a dense one, be warned.”

“Just need a light, mate. Heard he was the one to go to.”

Snart hummed, his amusement obvious as he beckoned her to a small room. Knocking, he did not wait for a reply before stepping inside. Mick looked up from where he sat chugging a beer.

“Snart… and you,” Mick stood up, “what do you want, weasel?”

“Weasel? That’s a new one. I heard you could give me a light?” John chuckled and raised her cigarette. 

Mick huffed and dropped back down into his chair. “Why should I?”

“Come on, big boy, can’t a girl ask a teeny tiny favor?” she leaned across his desk, her thigh resting on the edge with her skirt showing just enough skin to make the man interested. Clearing his throat, his eyes still glued to her leg, he sighed. 

“Give me the cigarette.”

John cheered as she handed it over and he burnt the tip of it before handing it back. 

“Thanks, lovely!” she kissed his cheek and his ears went bright red as she skipped out of the room. Snart and Mick watched her leave. 

“Better be careful with that one, Mick, she’s trouble.”

Mick looked down at the beer in his hand. “Yeah, uh, trouble.”

*LEGENDS*

“Be careful,” Ray commented over the coms as the others infiltrated the loony bin, “you guys are in an asylum with a demon. That’s a twofer of terror.”

Everyone ignored him.

“That’s her,” John confirmed from where she lay resting on the gurney that Sara, Nate, Snart, and Amiya huddled around in nurse costume. 

With a deep breath, Sara got into character. 

“Oh, there she is, thank you, I can take it from here. I mean, her, from here.”

The male nurses frowned. “I’m sorry, who are you?”

“I’m doctor… you know what, no, I’m not doing this.” Sara struck out and punched him in the face as her crew standing behind her sprang into action. As she cleared the hall, John swaggered her way down the hall to Emily’s side. 

“Nice one, Sara. Now where to perform an exorcism?”

“There is a vacant room in the east wing, room 237,” Ray confirmed from the maps in the ship.

“Thank you, Raymundo. Sara…”

“I know. You go. I won’t let anyone interrupt. We will rendezvous once this area is cleared.”

“Alright, off we go then lads.”

The lighting flashed and Amiya noticed water pouring in. 

“Its Kuasa. You guys go, I’ll hold her off.”

Nate hesitated, but they had a job to do, so he, Snart, and Constantine pushed the gurney towards the abandoned room. 

“Emily? Emily, I need you to speak to me. Come on, Emily.”

“That’s… that’s not my name.”

“Uh guys?” Zari came in over the communication. “That girl your trying to save, is Nora fricking Dahrk.” 

“this is Damien Dahrk’s daughter? How is this even possible.”

“They changed her name. Looks after Dahrk was killed by the green arrow, Nora was placed in child protective services.”

“Demon’s prey on the lost souls. This one lost her name, her family…”

“Okay so,” Nate started, “If we exorcise Mallus, we can stop the family business before it takes off.”

“We need her alert for an exorcism. Nora? Nora, darling?”

“You guys go hit up the pharmacy,” Sara ordered, “see if you can find some adrenaline.”

The sound of fighting reached them. 

“Screw this, I am going to go help Amiya.”

“Use this, Nate,” Snart handed him the gun.

“How do I use it?”

“You pull the trigger.”

Nate nodded as he rushed out of the room. 

“Leo, we really need…”

“Yes, drugs, pronto, on it.”

Snart hurried out as John turned his attention back to the girl. 

“Watch her, tell me if she shows signs of consciousness. I am going to draw.”

As John finished the circle, Snart finally returned.

“I got the adrenaline, what is this?”

“This is the Triangle of Solomon with some elder runes and enochian script. It’s a trap of my own design. Mallus will have no chance of breaking free. Go on then love.”

Sara nodded and stepped into the circle. She injected the adrenaline and Nora sat up with a gasp, frightened. 

“It’s okay, easy, you’re safe. Now you told John here you heard voices in your head. What did they say?”

“Six”

“Six?” Sara turned to John in confusion. 

“Number of the beast, now step aside Lance.”

Sara quickly hurried out of the circle.

“I summon the demon Mallus. I order you to come forth. Step into the light!”

The electricity began to spark and shatter around them and Mallus began to rise. 

“Nora!” Sara started to go forward. 

“No! that’s not Nora,” John stopped her.  
Mallus looked up, the girl’s eyes now blood red.  
“I’ve been expecting you, Sarah Lance. Soon, you will gaze upon my true face. Soon, you will inhabit my world.”  
“Mallus, you tosspot. I see you. Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis incursion infernalis!”  
The demon laughed. “No John. Your tricks won’t work on me.”  
“Bloody hell…”  
“Any ideas?” Sara shouted as the three were thrown back into the wall.  
“Those were my ideas,” John groaned.  
The child began mumbling and writing in the circle.  
“She’s preparing an incantation.”  
“Maybe we should stop her?” Snart asked.  
But it was too late. A bright light filled the room and the three of them vanished, leaving Nora alone.  
The three appeared in the hall of the asylum, but not their asylum.  
“So where are we exactly?” Snart asked, looking down at the nurses from the staircase.  
The question I think is more like ‘when’,” Sara answered.  
“January 16, 1969,” John answered as she picked up a newspaper. “She sent us back in time. This is weird. Can we get your, uh, team to come pick us up?”  
“We can’t communicate across time without special equipment.”  
“You mean, we’re stuck here?”  
John sighed and lit a cigarette.  
Sara raised an eyebrow.  
“What?” the girl chuckled, “we wouldn’t want to stand out now would we?” she gestured to the nurses smoking down below.  
Sara rolled her eyes.  
“Hey look, they still have the same painting on the walls,” John noticed.  
“That’s how we send a message!” Sara exclaimed.  
“We write a letter on the back of the painting and the legends will find it in 2017.”  
“Sure, so long as no one redecorates for the next fifty years. Fingers crossed,” Snart added sacrastically. 

STAR CITY, 1969

As the three legends walked down the hall, Sara began to hear his voice.  
“Closer Sara. Almost there.”  
“Love? You alright?” John called to her friend.  
Sara nodded. “I’m fine, come on, we are almost to room 237.”  
The electricity began to sputter, and her breathing picked up. Suddenly, the lights went out. Looking back at John and Len, it was though they were terribly far away.  
“They cannot reach you, only I can…” Mallus laughed.  
Sara panicked and flew backwards into the wall behind her, when the other walls next to her were nearly bust through by a monster reaching out for her.  
“Captain Lance!” Snart yelled.  
“Sara?!” John hollered, hurrying to her side. “Nothing is there, Sara. I told you there would be repercussions for going to the dark side. He can sniff you out and he will use you too. You can’t let him break you.”  
Sara nodded, but her breathing was off. “We… we gotta get out of here.”  
“Guards!” Snart whispered hurriedly in warning.  
Looking back to confirm the threat, the three hurried into a nearby empty open room.  
“The painting…” John started.  
“I’ll put a message behind it,” Snart confirmed.  
“I’ll see to her and then come and find you.”  
“Alright.”  
Snart hurried off as John turned to Sara.  
“You gotta help me, John. He’s coming for me.”  
“Alright come on,” John took her hand and hurried down on the opposite end of the room to another hall.  
Sara continued to see monsters bursting from the walls around her as they ran and she was panicking, eyes wide and filled with terror.  
“Hey, hey, come here, come here.”  
John grabbed her and pulled her to a stop, her touch becoming an anchor. “Stay with me Sara, stay with me.”  
“What’s happening?” she questioned, her voice trembling.  
“It’s Mallus’ trickery. Fear, anger, he’s using your darkest emotions to prime you for possession.”  
Sara gasped as her mind was attacked again.  
“He wants you to be afraid!” John’s voice cut back through the fear, “Fight him Sara.”  
John began to chant, and Sara breathed heavily as the emotions and scary sights slowly receded.  
“Better?” John asked, relaxing her touch, “Feels like the mother of all hangovers, doesn’t it?”  
Sara nodded and slipped to the floor. John chuckled and sat down beside her.  
“A shot of pickle juice and a gin and tonic would be perfect about now. Sort it right out.”  
“I thought this was all over,” Sara sighed. “The fight for my soul and all the crap I have had to endure.”  
“There’s always more to endure,” John commented with a dry laugh, “Take it from someone who has damned their own soul to hell.”  
Sara stared at the girl beside her, and John sighed, realizing she was waiting for more.  
“It’s a long story, but… there was a girl in Newcastle… Astra.” John’s voice broke a bit and Sara felt her heart go out to her friend. “Astra was the daughter of a close friend of mine and I… I failed her. I failed them all.”  
“Some might say you should forgive yourself.”  
John laughed bitterly.  
“If I could, I guess I wouldn’t need to save the likes of poor Nora. What about you? Have you forgiven yourself of your sins?”  
Sara hummed. “I don’t deserve forgiveness.”  
John smirked. “Yeah… me either.”  
The two sat there for a moment before John stood up. She brushed off her skirt before offering Sara her hand.  
“John?”  
“Hmm?”  
“What are you really?”  
Johnna paused, caught off guard. Her eyes began searching Sara’s own.  
“No one just stares down a demon like that without feeling fear. Yet you did… and you didn’t react at all. You even called it a name and laughed in its face.”  
John was silent before she snapped her hand up, where what looked to be a playing card lay trapped between two fingers.  
“What is that?”  
John showed it to her, twirling it around so Sara could see the white and black birds on both sides of the card.  
“This is just a token. A reminder one might say, about the strength it takes to look a demon in the eye and not be scared. See Sara Lance, everyone has two sides of themselves. One may seem white and pure, but it can be dirtied. The other is already fully black, yet it can be considered flawless because you cannot see the grime it carries. Like this card Sara, you and I have two sides. On the outside we may seem pure, beautiful and snow white, but we show the dirt more easily and clearly. On the inside however, we are already so black, we are considered flawless beings despite the dirt we carry.”  
“I don’t unders-…” Sara hesitated, when John stepped closer in.  
“Take it, this card.”  
Sara reached up and gently took the card, but John did not let go. Instead, the young girl with honey colored hair and beautiful hazel eyes kept her gaze locked and within their depths, Sara felt a chill go up her spine when a flash of hellfire appeared for the smallest of microseconds.  
“John?”  
Johnna Constantine stepped back; her eyes once again clear.  
“We all have monsters inside us, Sara. Some are just better hidden than others.” Clearing her throat, John smiled. “Now, shall we go, Ms. Lance?”  
Sara nodded; the card still clutched in her hand as the two walked onward to find Snart. 

*LEGENDS*

Leonard Snart was not having a good day. So far today, he had been thrown by a demon, transported to another time, drugged, and now is about to be lobotomized after being captured by these nutty asylum doctors who felt a hole in the brain could cure any problems someone might have.  
“No, no, no, no, no, no! You are making a serious mistake lady; I am not insane! I promise! You do not know what you’re doing!”  
“I have completed thousands of transorbital lobotomies. After we finish, your disease will be cured.”  
Leonard flinched when the large need was near his eye just as the door to the room smashed open.  
“Who are you?!” the female doctor yelled, pulling blessedly back.  
“We are also from the future and spoiler alert; you don’t age well,” Sara mocked.  
The doctor scowled and attempted to stab Sara, but a quick dodge and deflect had the woman going down with a single hit. Quickly, Sara and John rushed to Snart’s side.  
“They found the note and we need to find another way out of here,” Snart quickly told them.  
“Okay, the symbol that Nora drew was a time travel spell, right? So why don’t we just cast the same spell and get out of here?”  
“She was channeling the power of Mallus,” John explained as she released the last few straps holding down Len. “Not even I have that kind of juice.”  
“I do! You said Mallus was using me, so you summon Mallus into me and I draw the rune same as her and we get to go home.”  
“You said I was strong enough to hold Mallus off?”  
“Yeah but…” John sighed. “I was trying to inspire you.”  
“I’m inspired, so let’s just do this okay?!”  
“I hope you two weren’t having a casual conversation while I was about to be lobotomized!”  
John sighed. “This is why I work alone.”  
Sara rolled her eyes.  
“Come on you big baby, it will be fine. Just walk me through it.”

*LEGENDS*

“Okay listen Sara, you must outwill Mallus. Don’t let the demon coax you in further and just draw the temporal rune.” John hesitated before deciding to reconfirm. “Are you sure about this, Sara?”  
“Do you want to stay here forever, John?”  
John sighed again, since the obvious answer was no. “The ash of a slain phoenix will hold Mallus within his parameter and we will hasten Mallus’ summoning by combining extract hawk weed and the saliva of the damned.”  
John took the small glass vile and spit into it, sloshing the liquid to mix it with the weed before handing it to Sara who just rolled her eyes at the girl’s antics and swallowed it down.  
“Let’s summon this demon already,” she said as she tossed the vile behind her.  
John nodded and went into her usual stance, legs spread apart, and hands raised, as she began to chant.  
“-Ab intra, resurgemus daemonium!”  
John watched the floor and slowly, the runes began to appear. It was working, but Mallus was there, fighting.  
As time passed, the runes slowed to a stop.  
“What is going on? Why did she stop?” Snart whispered.  
John shook her head. “I don’t know. Come on Sara, finish it!”  
Items began to move around them suddenly and the air began to rumble. The lights began to flash and John grew worried something had happened, but then the runes began to show again.  
“Come on!”  
“Are we leaving? We leaving now?” Snart questioned.  
“Grab an arm!”  
The two rushed into the circle and grabbed Sara just as a blinding light appeared and spirited them away, back into the room they had originally been in.  
John laughed in relief.  
“Are we back?” Snart questioned, looking around.  
“She bloody did it,” John cackled, before her smiled died and she looked down at Sara who laid unmoving.  
“Sara?”  
The woman did not move.  
“No, no, no, don’t do this to me, love, come on Sara. Come back to me! Sara! Prove me wrong, show me how strong you are! Sara…”  
Sara Lance began to smile. “You should really see your face.”  
John scoffed as Snart laughed and Sara snickered.  
“Oh,” John breathed relief before shoving her down, “Get up you asshole!”  
Sara laughed and the three felt their tension melt away. They had made it. Mallus was gone, at least for now.

*LEGENDS*

Back on the ship, Sara groaned as John once again tossed holy water unexpectedly into her face.  
“How many times are you going to do that? I told you, I’m fine.”  
“Somehow you managed to channel a demon of the highest order and you didn’t succumb.”  
“Sara’s strong, she’s the strongest person I know,” Amiya commented.  
“hmm,” Sara cocked an eyebrow and a sly smile towards John.  
John rolled her eyes.  
“Hey when Nora was possessed by Mallus, he seemed scared of my totem,” Zari explained, filling the others in on what happened with Nora while they were gone. “He called me one of the six.”  
“That demon doesn’t fear much. If your totem gave him the frights, maybe these trinkets are the keys to stopping him,” John surmised.  
“So much for our anti-magic nanite gun,” Ray sighed.  
John hummed in curiosity.  
“I only know about five totems. My spirit, your air Zari, Kuasa’s water, and then there’s earth and fire, but could there be more?”  
“I’ll do some digging,” John confirmed, “I have numerous contacts I can draw upon. Well mates… this has been weird, even for me.”  
John snickered, shaking her head before turning to Sara.  
“I’ll be on my way then.”  
Sara hesitated but then hurried after her.  
“John!”  
Johnna stopped.  
“Before you go, I just wanted to say… thank you. For helping me with Mallus.”  
“Yeah no problem. Call if you ever need my help with a demon again.”  
John started to turn away once more.  
“John?”  
She stopped again.  
“About the card…”  
John sighed.  
“It’s better you don’t know, Sara.”  
“We are friends John. At least I like to think so. If you ever need help, this is a two-way street.”  
John was silent as Sara walked off, her thoughts a mess of emotions.  
“Oh Ray, big man! Give me a hand with the cargo door?” she shouted.  
Ray hurried over with a smile.  
“The door really isn’t so complicated,” he attempted to explain as they walked, “but it is a pretty intuitive design mechanism. Uh, basic open-close functionality.”  
“I know how to open the bloody door, mate,” John cut him off. “What’s all this about an anti-magic gun?”  
“Oh, I was going to put it in storage.”  
“Well don’t, keep it nearby.”  
Ray frowned. “You said so yourself, the key to stopping Mallus is the totems.”  
“Could be, but in the meantime, you may need a more accessible solution for a more familiar problem.”  
“What?”  
“Sara. Mallus no doubt left a piece of himself inside her and if she succumbs, or more like when, you will need that gun.”  
John lit a cigarette.  
“As always, this is a non-smoking aircraft,” Gideon binged from above.  
“Don’t worry Gideon sweetheart,” John smirked, “I’m leaving.”  
With a wink at Ray, she grabbed her bag. “I’ll see you around, Squire.”  
With a tap on the shoulder from Constantine before she stepped outside, Ray coughed in the wake of her smoke.  
“Man, she’s cool,” he whispered, amazed.


	3. A Greene Sharpie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “According to my research her name is Johnna Constantine, age twenty-two, one older sister, both parents… deceased. She was part of a group called the Newcastle Crew. They accidentally summoned a demon that dragged a child into Hell.”   
> Adam Sharpe frowned. “Sounds like a real weirdo.”

NEW YORK CITY, 2018

It had been nearly a month since the events that had brought John to the legends and she had been busy ever since, doing odd jobs here and there around the nation. Without Zed and Chas at the millhouse, that place no longer felt like home. 

Outside the apartment where John was currently staying and working with one of his temporary clients, she had no idea that two people were about to enter who would change her life forever. 

“Director Sharpe, who is this John Constantine?” Gary Greene questioned as they walked. 

“According to my research her name is Johnna Constantine, age twenty-two, one older sister, both parents… deceased. She was part of a group called the Newcastle Crew. They accidentally summoned a demon that dragged a child into Hell.” Adam Sharpe frowned. “Sounds like a real weirdo.”

“She’s a sorceress! You know I happen to be a level nine, Warlock myself.”

“Dungeons and Dragons don’t count, Gary.”

A woman suddenly shrieked and the two hurried forward, bursting into the room. To their surprise, they walked in on what appeared to be an elderly woman and a teenage girl racing around the room, trying to catch a fleeing chicken.

“Hey, do us a favor, give us a hand won’t you?”

Gary hurried forward but missed the exceptionally fast chicken. Quickly crawling forward, he dove and grabbed for its leg.

“Grab it, grab it, grab it!” 

“Got it!” Gary shouted proudly. 

“Aww, there you are! Nice one lad, thank you,” John grinned and Gary could only stare in awe. 

This sorceress… she was beautiful. In his eyes, it was almost like he could a glow around her honey colored hair and hazel eyes; the way her presence seemed so captivating.   
John of course, was oblivious to the stranger staring dopily at her. Sharpe noticed and elbowed his companion in order to snap him out of it before turning back to wait on the sorceress to discuss business. 

“You’re a feisty little bugger, aren’t you?” John cooed, before turning to Sharpe. “Are you guys from the house co-op, because its perfectly legal to win an apartment in a duel.”

“What? No. We are here about Sara Lance,” Sharpe answered. 

“Ah.”

John turned to the woman, handing the chicken back to her. “Mrs. Veras, we will have to continue the ritual tomorrow, but not to worry, love. We will have your son married in no time.”

“Si, thank you Ms. Constantine. You know, my son is very handsome yes? Come for dinner anytime.”

John chuckled with good humor, but Gary found himself slightly perturbed, stepping forward a little closer to the young sorceress. 

Turning back to the two men staring at her, John smiled. “It’s a gig economy. I have to take the work where I can find it, you know?”

Sharpe and Gary nodded as John stepped past them. 

“Now then, let me guess. Sara has succumbed to the demon Mallus. I sensed his power growing, but not to worry, I gave Ray specific instructions to kill her if that ever happened.”

Adam Sharpe, the director of the time bureau, gaped. “What?”

“Eggs and omelets, mate. And extreme measures,” John replied, lighting a cigarette as she collapsed into her office chair. 

“Well, I’m here to save Sara. She’s bonded with the death totem.”

“Oh, well crap.”

“What… what does that mean?”

“Well about this so-called death totem. Recently, while heavily influenced by ayahasca, I came to learn why the sixth lost tribe of Zambesi was stricken from the oral record. This lost tribe, which had been entrusted to watch over the domain of the dead, sided with Mallus. While the other five tribes tried to imprison him, perhaps explaining why the death totem is linked with our demon friend.”

John stood up and quickly grabbed her trench coat and red scarf, pulling them on as she continued explaining. 

“Sara is likely trapped in Mallus’ realm. Usually, I would have to cast the demon into myself to rescue her, but luckily, I already have a link to Sara’s soul.”

Noticing the funny look on Adam’s face, John smirked before continuing.

“While trying to save Nora Dahrk, Sara had to drink the saliva of the damned, and that’s me. She and I are now connected. So, I will enlist Aken, the Egyptian ferryman of the dead.”

“Sara and I also share a very profound bond, so…”

John hummed, snickering, as she sat down on the floor within the circle, she had drawn ages ago when she first won the apartment.

Gary stared at his director. 

“Wait, you and Captain Lance?”

Adam fidgeted. 

“Right, well… your point?” John asked. 

“My point is,” Adam sat down beside John. “I’m going in with you.”

“To the realm of Mallus?”

Adam gave a nod. “Start chanting.”

John sighed. 

“Very well, give me your hand, handsome.”

Adam hesitated before taking her hand.

“Mallus, Aken, Ka, Ren, Ba, Ib, Sheut, Mallus Aken Ma’at.” John continued chanting, Adam didn’t really feel anything, but the pressure suddenly began to grow, and then finally, a voice began to speak. 

“Johnna Constantine. You dare enter my realm?”

The candles exploded in flame, sending Gary, John, and Adam flying backwards. 

Disgruntled that the doorway had been shut on her, John hurriedly stood up and grabbed one of his grimoires. Gary and Adam were both standing up as John began flipping through the pages. Gary, curious, stepped over and fixed his socks as he peeked over her shoulder.

Noticing his socks, John became momentarily distracted. “What have you got on your socks there, squire?”

“Oh, it’s Beebo. My Aunt Stacy bought them for me.” Gary smiled. “You like beebo?”

“Once when I was on a massive bender, I put a spell on that toy to make him talk. He told me things that would make your toes curl.”

“Oh, like what?” Gary leaned forward, interested. 

Adam stared at the two in complete disbelief. 

“Okay you two, Sara’s soul is trapped in the realm of a demon and her ship and entire crew are lost in time. Who cares about Beebo?”

John was quick with her reply. “His Aunt Stacy does.”

Adam gaped.

“Your wound tight as a bloody drum, aren’t you mate?” John teased. “You need to loosen up a bit and then the work just flows.”

“Is that work your doing? Sorry I couldn’t tell!”

“Look handsome, there isn’t exactly a paint-by-number spell for locating a spaceship floating through a temporal stream. My business card says, ‘Mistress of the Dark Arts’, not ‘Doctor Ruddy-what’s-his-face.”

“Who?”

“Exactly.”

“What? Okay, you know what, Gary? Let’s just get out of here because Ms. Constantine is obviously just a kid playing grown up, and she has wasted enough of our time.”

John ignored them as she dug into the back of her chair and pulled out an amputated foot. 

“Oh, that’s where you were! You beauty,” John kissed the random foot and both Adam and Gary stared in palpable horror. 

“Wait, so you have a foot, but you don’t have a phone?” Adam cried. “How could Sara be so interested in someone like you?”

“She’s interested in me?” John perked up, curious.

“Not the point. Anyways, Sara called me her boyfriend, but is she really that sort of a woman? She’s bi, so is she truly okay with just me? How can she be friends with this kid and think more highly of her than me and yet this girl is so…” Adam looked disgusted. 

“She called you her boyfriend?” Gary questioned with a smile.

“Yes! and I want to believe she meant it, but…”

“Obviously, handsome, she thinks more highly of you then me if that’s true, seeing as how Sara is a bluntly honest person most times,” John spoke up. “Besides if the price of admission is looking like a fool or getting your heart broken, then I’d say Sara is pretty well worth the risk, wouldn’t you? Not that I am interested.”

“Huh… okay, well… there has to be a way to find the Waverider,” Adam sighed. “Don’t you have any idea, oh great and powerful sorceress?” 

“Didn’t you call me a kid before?” John mocked.

“You are a kid, but…” 

“I have an idea,” Gary interrupted. 

“We are all ears, mate,” John sighed.

“The legends remind me of my dungeons and dragons’ group. Don’t laugh.”

“Too late,” John snickered.

“And last year, we were on a campaign, the trials of Eagon. Our party was made up a monk, a druid, a half-orc rogue, a bard, and like a cheerful gnome who was also a very accomplished wizard. We were being hunted and we were exhausted. Our sorceress was missing, feared dead.”

“Gary how does any of this help us find Sara and the Legends?”

“Wait, let him finish,” John spoke up, “go on then, squire.”

“My point is, we worked together to survive, so if the legends don’t separate, they should be fine. And then my teammates and I worked together to track the sword the enemy was wielding. The Sword of Sorrow. It led us to their base and…”

“That’s it!” John jumped up and kissed Gary on the lips who gaped in pleasant surprise. “You are a bloody genius, Barry.”

“It’s Gary,” he whispered, in awe.

“Gary, right. I need the vile from my desk, mother’s tears, my ruination stones, and Adam! Hand over the foot.”

Adam sighed and handed it to him, disgusted to have even touched it. 

“So, just to clarify, what are you doing?”

“As Gary said, the easiest way to find the Legends, is to find the death totem.”

John cringed as she guzzled down the ingredients. Then with a quick mental chant, she spat it out. Magic golden sparks sprayed out across the table and they all watched as it encircled their coordinates. 

*LEGENDS*

When Adam opened a temporal pathway to the ship at the location John gave them, they were struck for a moment to see Sara, her form changed into that of a pale, veiny monster, standing before them. She was ripping into Nate and John didn’t hesitate to start casting a spell. 

Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus. Omnis satanic potestas omnis infenalis adversarii, in nominee at virtute domini! Hit her with the holy water!” Johns shouted as the demon rolled and cried out in pain before them. 

Adam hurried to do as he commanded, spraying the water at the demon who screamed in rage and in obvious pain. Then suddenly, it was like it all changed. The demon began to float upward, and everyone stared, uncertain. 

“There is someone who wants to talk to you, John.”

Sara’s neck cracked and suddenly Astra’s voice was coming from her body.

“John?”

Adam pulled John back a step. 

“You glamoured your voice. That’s the oldest bloody trick in the book,” John snorted. 

“You don’t remember me? I know it’s been a long time.”

John stared. “Astra…”

Adam and Gary shared a look with one another, concerned. 

“Mallus will free me from hell, but you have to give him Sara. A life for a life. You know better than anybody. Magic always has a price.”

“I want to speak to Sara!” Adam shouted.

Sara’s hand stretched out and Adam and Gary went flying back, but John stopped her from going any further. 

“Okay, all right Astra, I will do it.” John stepped forward and stretched out her hand. “Give me your hand, Astra. Come on, it’s all right, love. It’s just me. It’s Johnny.”

Slowly, Sara’s hand went into John’s and as soon as it did, John pulled her close. 

“No one escapes Hell! The scared cross commands you,” she chanted as she pressed a cross against the demon, “to free this woman from your prison!”

Mallus however was too strong. Her hand went up and John felt her throat constrict, her feet leaving the ground as the grip around her esophagus grew tighter, and Mallus laughed.

Her totem suddenly began to glow, and John choked and sputtered when the demon released him back to the ground, running through the hall. 

Adam was getting up from the ground just as Gary ran to John.

“Are you okay, Miss Constantine?”

“Fine. We need to find Sara,” She choked out, still coughing.

The three had just rounded the corner when they saw a fire ball hit Sara and fling her backwards. 

“Sara!” Adam shouted, running forward. 

Adam leaned over her distraught. 

“Remind her to fight,” John choked out, her neck still throbbing. 

Adam nodded and began to whisper into her ear, encouraging her to fight, to survive, to return. And Sara did. She heard him.

“You saved me, Adam!”, she whispered when she came too. 

Adam, struck with wonder at the suddenness of the change, yet incredibly pleased, reached forward and drew Sara into a gentle embrace. 

“I had some help,” he replied, looking back at where John, Gary, Mick, and Amiya stood watching.

John hummed and glanced at Mick who was staring at the fire in his hand in awe. 

“Don’t mind if I do,” John replied, lighting her cigarette. 

Sara chuckled and snuggled into the embrace of her boyfriend, relieved beyond measure that she had won, and Mallus would never again be able to control her. 

*LEGENDS*

Sara grabbed two glasses and poured two cups of whisky for herself and Johnna.

“You know, technically, this is illegal to let you drink.”

“You do know it depends on the time period, right?” John teased. 

Sara chuckled. “Cheers?”

“Chin chin, love,” John said as she knocked it back. Humming in please, she licked her lips. “I should come to your aid more often, Sara.”

Sara scoffed. “At this point, I might as well make you a bed on the ship.”

“Hm, tempting.”

Sara doubted it. “John?”

“Hmm?”

“If you thought Mallus would have actually freed Astra, you would have traded me, wouldn’t you?”

John looked at Sara, her eyes clear. “In a heartbeat.”

“Yeah,” Sara nodded, not surprised but still needing to know.

“What can I say? I’m a nasty piece of work, Sara.”

“Me to.”

“You survived this love.”

“For now.”

“You know,” John started as she headed towards the door, “there is a reason I walk this path alone most of the time. It’s so I don’t have to share with anyone how lost I really am. But you’re not alone, are you Sara?”

“Maybe I should be”, Sara Lance replied honestly.

John chuckled. “He’s a good one, that Adam. Try not to hurt him.”

Sara sighed as John vanished into the hall. 

“That’s what I am afraid of,” she whispered. 

*LEGENDS*

Johnna felt alone like she hadn’t in a long time. She sent a message to her clients, postponing her assignments or canceling the irrelevant ones with the excuse of a family emergency, when in truth, she needed to binge on alcohol for a while and sleep away her grief. 

Stepping into the millhouse in the heart of Georgia’s wilderness, away from all of society, John felt a sense of relief and anxiety all in one. The place was dark and silent, not a single sound within its magical depths. Reminiscences of warm welcomes of a past life now better left forgotten, echoed through its halls, but nothing remained of those times except shadow. 

“Johnna bloody Constantine,” she spoke aloud to herself as she collapsed onto the couch, once again staring up into that accursed mirror. “What am I doing here? I swore I would never come back, so why…”

A knock on the door startled her. Who could possibly be here at this time of morning?

Hesitant to even want to speak to anyone, especially if it was Zed, she opened the door. She was shocked to see Gary Green standing there.

“Gary?”

“Yes, uh, hi again Ms. Constantine.”

“Call me John.”

“John! Thank you so much! You can call me Gary! I know I’m here without warning and I probably should have called you, but you don’t have a phone, so I…”

She sighed, not ready to deal with this level of excitement. 

“Gary?”

“Hmm?”

“The point?”

“Oh, yes, right, sorry! I came because I wanted to invite you to play dungeons and dragons with my group!”

“Me?” John asked incredulous. 

“Yeah! You’re a real sorceress, so I thought it would be fun, unless you don’t like dungeons and dragons, in which case, maybe we could…”

“Gary?”

“Yes?”

He was startled when she stepped up and kissed him gently on the lips. Blushing like mad, he was rendered speechless. A rare thing for him. 

“Thank you,” she whispered honestly, “I would love to play dungeons and dragons with you.”

“Uh, yeah, yes! Okay, let’s go! Is now good? I guess I didn’t ask about a time that would work for you, but I…”

“Now’s fine Gary. Lead the way.”

“Yes, well I have a car parked over here. Can I… escort you?” he held out his elbow.

She chuckled, taking it loosely. 

He continued to prattle on, all the way to the car. “Do you have a dungeons and dragons’ character? If you don’t, we can get you one. I bet it would be easy for you to become a high ranked sorceress in the game who…” 

“I have one,” John cut him off. “I’m an archer who can use dagger skills.”

“Really? I wouldn’t have guessed! So, you’re a rogue?”

“Well… Something like that. I wanted something opposite what my reality is,” she laughed. “And I had a friend who somewhat inspired my character choice, though that is not to say my character can't use magic.”

“That’s awesome! Do I know this friend of yours? Is it Captain Lance, she…”

As Gary prattled on, John closed her eyes. Tonight, only tonight, she wouldn’t mind allowing herself a single evening of selfishness.


	4. Here There Be Dragons

Johnna Constantine had heard of some strange happenings in the mountains of Peru. People being found burned to death, some looking as though they had been chomped on by a large wild animal, while others were still missing. Today, John was going to go check out these happenings, and with her by her side, because he rarely left as of late, was Gary Greene. 

It was as though after playing the game dungeons and dragons, Gary felt a bond had been formed and while John didn’t dislike Gary’s company as he made for a decent distraction, there were times, like today, she was still a bit confused why he was even here.

“You do know this is a job, right? Don’t you have work to do at the time bureau?”

“Not really. Me, director Sharpe, and the legends are all on vacation. So, I figured, why not hang out with my Master!”

That was another thing. Since playing dungeons and dragons, he had come to calling her ‘Master’ all the time because her character has decimated his groups various characters. While she couldn’t say she hated it, she wasn’t very excited about the title either. Then again, maybe teaching someone a little bit of actual magic might be fun. It had definitely been a while since anyone was as interested in what she knows and what she can do, as Gary is. 

“Fine, you can come along, but you listen to everything I tell you. Got it?”

“Yes Master!”

“Heh,” she rolled her eyes at his enthusiasm. 

Being with Gary did have its benefits. Such as an instant temporal portal to the capital of Peru. It made traveling ten times faster, and cheaper. 

PERU, 2018

“Master, what are we going to do first? Check out the sights? Talk with the locals?” 

“I was thinking find a hotel room and grab a bite to eat.”

“Oh. Yeah, that sounds good too!”

Looking around, John walked up to the first person he felt seemed dependable. 

“Hola. Estoy buscando una habitación de hotel. Alguna buena en la zona?” 

“Sí, prueba el lado norte cerca de la base de la montaña. Es un pequeño lugar llamado Enricos.”

“Gracias.”

“What did he say, Master?”

“He said try the place called Enrico’s near the base of the mountain on the northside. Sounds like as good a place to start as any.”

The two walked to the Inn and stepped inside. It was a nice place, but it seemed strangely empty for an Inn in Peru so close to the mountains. 

“Ah, tourists? Welcome!” a friendly voice called out in fairly clear English. 

“Hello, mate. Your joint seems empty today. I’m surprised.”

“Ah yes. Have you heard of the rumors?”

“You mean about the monster in the mountains?”

“Yes, that. People are scared my Inn is too close to the mountains. It’s bad for business.”

“Well, I’m not scared. I need two rooms please.”

“Of course!”

“Is there anyplace good to eat around here?”

“I have room service, but if you are wanting local cuisine, I would say try a place called Loco Ferro nearer the ocean. If you want American food, we do have McDonalds!”

John wrinkled her nose at the idea of eating at that greased bucket of cardboard. The owner must have noticed because he began to laugh. 

“I agree, senorita!” He nodded.

“Master?”

John turned and looked where Gary was pointing. A strange young man with one eye was staring at them. 

“Who is that?” John asked the owner.

“Ah, him.” The owner sighed. “That’s Alejandro Portello; we call him Ajo around here. I am sorry, Senorita, he means no harm. He is the one who started the rumors about the monster in the mountain and has been warning people away from my place ever since.”

“You aren’t angry about that?” Gary asked him.

“No, most folks don’t believe him, but I can’t deny there may be some truth to what he says. Perhaps not a monster, but maybe a bear? The local authorities are keeping the area under tight wraps until they figure it out for sure. It cuts down on tourism, but I suppose it’s best to be safe. Anyways, the boy is harmless, and he is friends with Rui.”

John was curious who this Rui was, but ignored it for now. “Can we go into the mountains?”

“Not easily. As I said, authorities are keeping it under lockdown. I suppose you could go around them, but I would be careful mis amigos, I don’t want to see you both dead.”

*LEGENDS*

“Master.” Gary whispered as they walked out of the Inn after settling their things into their rooms. 

“Hmm?” She hummed, lighting a cigarette. 

“That man is following us again.”

John stopped and turned. Sure enough, the one-eyed man was there. 

“Excuse me!” she hollered. “¿Hablas inglés?”

“I do,” he answered. 

“Good to hear it, mate. Mind telling me what you want from us?”

“You should leave that Inn. The mountains are dangerous, especially at night.”

“Why, what’s out there?”

The man turned and surveyed the area as though checking for people listening in before turning back to them. 

“It’s a dragon.”

John stared. Gary stared. The man stared.

“A dragon? Your serious?”

The man nodded.

Gary squealed. “A DRAGON! THAT IS SO EXCITING! WE CAN SEE A REAL-LIFE DRAGON! MASTER, DID YOU HEAR THAT?! A DRAGON!!!”

“Gary, too loud, mate,” she shushed him, but Gary was on a role as he paced and rambled to himself in excitement. 

The man stared at John. 

“You believe me?”

“I’ve seen a lot of things in my time. A dragon wouldn’t be the weirdest thing.”

“You’re only a child. Your time... if you have seen weirder monsters than that beast, I pity you.”

John ignored him. “Where did you see it?”

“I can show you.”

“You want to come with us?” John asked, raising her eyebrows.

The man nodded. “My name is Ajo and I am a mountain guide who has lived here since birth. I have hunted in these mountains since I was little. No one is better for you than me. I will help.”

“I will accept your offer than, mate. My name is Johnna Constantine. My friends call me John. That,” she tossed her thumb over her shoulder at Gary who was still circling in place and rambling like a mad man. “That’s Gary, you can just ignore him.”

“Master!” Gary gasped in mock horror.

John smirked. 

The man chuckled. “You two are very funny. A British woman and an American man together. Rare sight unless married. Are you married?”

Gary blushed a crimson red.

“No,” John answered bluntly, “He’s my assistant. This is my card.” 

She handed him one of her business cards. The man took it and read it out loud. 

“Johnna Constantine, Master Exorcist, Demonologist, and Mistress of the Dark Arts?”

“That’s me.”

“No wonder you believed me. You are like our Curandero, Rui.”

That name again, John hummed. “Curandero?”

“Yes, Santa Rubio is the local Curandero here in our tribal land. I suppose some might also call him a Shaman, healer, or witchdoctor.”

“I see. Has this Rui been dealing with the injured who were harmed by the dragon?”

“Indeed. I have discussed this situation with Rui many times and he does agree that the authorities should be doing something, but when I told the authorities my vision, they did not believe me.”

“Vision?”

“Ah, yes. I did not see the dragon myself, but I had a vision about it. Rui calls this the gods eye. He told me it is a rare gift amongst our people.”

“Yeah it is,” John whispered, thinking of Zed. “Have you had this ability your whole life?”

“Yes.”

“Have you used it your whole life?”

“Yes, Senorita. Why?”

“Ah, I have a friend like you, and she is sick because of her ability. Do you have pain or sickness after using it?”

“No, senorita. I have never suffered from my ability. It is a gift from the gods.”

“Right, gods,” she sighed, “can you take us to meet this Rui?”

“Of course, follow me!”

Santa Rubio was an elderly man, probably in his late seventies, casting what Constantine recognized as light magic or healing, upon the people who came to him for his services. Rui spoke in hushed tones before turning to greet his visitors, however he stopped short, when he noticed Constantine. 

“Are you by any chance, a practitioner of the dark arts?” he asked her.

John frowned. “I am, yeah. Is something wrong?”

“No, I apologize. Please, let’s go outside and speak.”

The four of them stepped outside the building before Rui turned to them. 

“What is your name?”

“Johnna Constantine. My friends call me John.”

“So, it is true, you have come. Then my time to die is near.”

“What?” Gary and Ajo asked at the same time. 

John was silent, frowning. “You had a vision?”

“Ajo did, long ago.”

“I do not remember this,” Ajo spoke up. 

“You were but a child Ajo, but I clearly remembered your words. You told me on the day darkness meets light, the light shall vanish, and the darkness shall triumph over blood. The only other thing you said was a name. Constantine.”

“Light will vanish, and darkness shall triumph over blood?” Gary repeated, turning to Constantine in fear. “Oh no master, are you going to die?!”

“No Gary!” John snapped, “Rui is saying he will die and I…” she hesitated, “I am guessing I am the darkness and will triumph over a blood dragon?”

“That would make sense,” Ajo frowned, “But Rui, surely the light part is…”

“Your visions are never wrong, Ajo. Fear not, I have been prepared for this day.” He turned to the two. “Have you eaten?”

“No, but we will grab a bite to eat after this,” John answered. 

“Nonsense. Ajo, take her friend to get some food. We will join you in a moment.”

Ajo looked between John and Rui, but nodded, all but dragging Gary with him.

“I have always wondered what you would look like and now I know,” Rui sighed, “darkness sounds like an ominous thing, Senorita Constantine, but fear not, for the vision knows you will triumph over this beast. It is my destiny to see it before I die. Of this I am certain.”

“You are a practitioner of light magic?”

“Yes Senorita, as you are of practitioner of the dark, so I am of the light. They say magic is a soul’s reflection. I do not believe this is true.”

“I think it is,” John whispered, but Rui heard it. 

“Why? Because your soul is damned? or is because of your bloodline?”

John stared at the man in surprise. 

“I can see your aura, Senorita Constantine. It is shrouded in hellfire. While all souls give off a hue of such a thing when damned to an eternity in hell, they do not burn brighter than the darkness unless they are possessed. You do not look, or act like a person possessed, so I can only assume that you are a child of a particular demonic bloodline instead, and a powerful one by the looks of it.”

“You are the first to ever know of this, aside from myself and my mother who died when I was born and… one other.”

“The one who haunts your heart perhaps?”

John frowned. “There is no way you could know that.”

“I can feel your heartache, anguish, sorrow, fear, anger, hatred, and regret, Senorita. It is a blessing and a curse to me, but I can feel your dark emotions because my spirit so strongly rejects them. You strongly grieve, niña. Can I aid your soul in its journey towards recovery?”

“No.”

Rui seemed thrown off by her blunt reply.

“Sorry, I appreciate your offer, Senior, but he isn’t dead, and neither is she, and I plan to rescue them. I don’t know when, but one day, I will finally succeed in this quest.”

“I see. I apologize for offending you.”

“You did not offend me. I thank you for your kindness, Senior Rui.”

“Shall we go and eat? This old man would like a chance to speak to you further, Senorita Constantine.”

“Of course, lead the way.”

*LEGENDS*

That night, John laid in her bed thinking about what Rui had said to her today.

“I can see your aura, senorita Constantine. It is shrouded in hellfire. While all souls give off a hue of such a thing when damned to an eternity in hell, they do not burn brighter than the darkness unless they are possessed. You do not look, or act like a person possessed, so I can only assume that you are a child of a particular demonic bloodline instead, and a powerful one by the looks of it.” 

“I can feel your heartache, anguish, sorrow, fear, anger, hatred, and regret, Senorita. You strongly grieve, niña. Can I aid your soul in its journey towards recovery?”

Giving up on the notion of sleep, John instead changed into her usual clothes before packing a small knapsack and heading over to Gary’s room. 

“Who is it?” came the mumbled reply.

“Gary, I’m going into the mountains.”

“What?!” John her a crash and a thud and wondered if he was still alive, when the door was whipped open and Gary, dressed in his snowman PJ’s, was standing ther

“Let me get ready Master and I will join you!”

He closed the door and hurried to prepare as John headed downstairs to the main floor. Unsurprising, Ajo was already there.

“Vision?”

“Yes, I saw you in my dream and I awoke. I told you I would guide you. Were you going to leave me behind, senorita Constantine?”

“I work best alone.”

“Same. So then, let’s work alone together.”

John chuckled.

Gary suddenly came running down the stairs, a large backpack and hiking gear in hand. “I’m ready!”

Ajo and John shared a look before the two simultaneously sighed and left the room, a confused but excited Gary following behind. 

Getting past the authorities had been easy, and now they were starting their trek into the mountains. 

At first, nothing but the sounds of birds and plant life greeted them, but then the birds began to quiet, and the smell changed from the decaying matter of plants, to the smell of burning flesh.

“Oh, that is nasty,” Gary whined. 

“It is just up this path now, Senorita. This is what I saw in my vision and this is as far as I can take you.”

John nodded. 

“Thanks for your help, Ajo.”

“Good luck Senorita Constantine. Senior Gary.”

As Ajo walked back down the mountain, Gary gulped. 

“John are we really going to go in there?” he asked, gesturing to the mouth of the cave.

“You can stay out here if you want to, Gary” she commented without slowing. 

“N-No, I… I’ll come with you,” he replied, his body shaking. 

John had to admit, she was a little impressed by his determination. 

“Oi! Dragon!” she shouted. “Come and get a snack!”

She spread her arms and waited at the mouth of the cave, but there was nothing. No sound. No movement. 

“Maybe its further in?” Gary suggested.

“Maybe,” John replied, suspicious. 

Sighing, she chanted a quick spell and cast fire into her palm, lighting the way. Gary stayed close to her. While he wanted to think it was to protect her, he could easily admit, it was highly more likely she would be protecting him. 

Making their way deeper, a soft rumble began to be heard.

“What is that?” Gary whispered.

“Snoring maybe?” John responded, unsure of the true answer herself, but confident in her guess. 

It proved accurate when they drew closer to the noise, because lying before them in its full glory, a dragon lay sound asleep, surrounded by bones and blood. It was a deep green color and by the way its nostrils flared with smoke rings upon each breath, John could guess it breathed fire like most mythical dragons, but what kind of fire was still up for debate. 

“What do you think? Can you kill it?”

“Maybe,” John replied, her fingers itching for a cigarette, but she couldn’t light one. Not right now. 

Gary crawled closer. He noticed what looked like a weapon just a short way off. Was it a sword like in the storybooks with knights and slain dragons? 

“Gary?!” John whispered fiercely when she noticed what he was doing.

“What? I’m just…” he froze in movement for the sword when the dragon moved its head. Blood red eyes now locked on him. 

“Uh… nice dragon?” Gary whimpered. 

ROAR! 

The dragon let out a horrible screech and Gary screamed, scrambling back. John cursed, hurrying forward, her hands ablaze with hellfire, but to her horror, when the dragon let out its own flames, she was shocked to realize it was the same. 

“Not good! It’s a demon, Gary! This is a demonic beast!”

“What?! What do we do?!”

“Kill it of course!” 

Quickly, she began to chant. Her words were clipped and rushed, because the dragon was moving closer and seemed none too happy. 

“John Constantine,” it garbled in the demonic tongue, “how very exciting to see you in person. A treat that I can be the one to finally kill you.”

John dodged its tail and blocked its hellfire, but she wasn’t sure what else to do. Her powers were nearly useless against a creature of the dark arts and it wasn’t a demon to exorcise and send back to hell either. This entire beast was demonic. The only way to truly finish it off would be to slay it by cutting off its head and banishing its soul to the void or else its essence might never actually truly disappear from this plane of existence. 

“I am here to assist, Senorita!”

John was shocked to see Ajo and Rui standing to the side. Ajo looking horrified and Rui, his hands were lit with a brilliant white light as he began to chant. 

“Voy a pelear contigo esta noche, demonio. Vuelve a donde viniste. No eres bienvenido aquí. Te destierro!”

John grinned, adding her own abilities into the mix. 

“Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus draconic spiritus…”

The dragon roared as the two hit it with a mixture of dark and light magic. Behind them, off to the side, Gary raced for the sword. Scooping it up, he turned just in time to see the dragon slash its tail into Rui, flinging him across the cavern. 

“John!” 

Constantine turned and barely had time to react as a sword came flying at her. Catching it, she twirled it in an arc just as the dragon opened its mouth before her and with a horrible cry, it retreated as the swords blade cut into its neck. Knowing the sword needed more power, John cast a fortitude spell upon herself and a sharpness spell upon the sword and then she began to chant. 

“Cortar profundo, cortar verdad, matar a este demonio monstruo. ¡Envía su alma de vuelta al olvido, el infierno es de donde es, criatura de sangre y fuego, te destierro!”  
The creature shrieked as the sword flew out of John’s hand and straight through its flesh. John felt her strength quickly waning, as this was a powerful spell and difficult to control, but she kept up her attacks, controlling the sword and keeping its momentum going. 

“Die beast! You are not welcome here!” Ajo yelled, attacking with his own blades. 

And finally, with a final surge of power, John’s sword slid through the deepest part of the dragon’s neck. The light faded in the dragon’s eyes and the dragon dropped to the cavern floor, unmoving. 

“Is it… is it dead?” Gary asked, voice shaking.

“Not yet, but it will be.”

John stepped up to the beast, its blood red eyes still faintly aware. 

“Go back to Hell and take the name of John Constantine with you!”

Gary turned away as John slashed through the beasts neck the rest of the way. It was only then though, that he noticed Ajo and Rui crumpled in the distant corner of the cavern. 

“John!”

John turned, a spray of the dragon’s blood upon her clothes, but she paid it no heed, especially not when she noticed the two in the far corner of the cave. Dropping the sword to the cavern floor, she hurried to them. 

“Senior Rubio?”

Rui smiled; his weight being supported by Ajo. “See, Senorita Constantine, I was destined to witness that monsters end.”

John smiled, but it was weak. 

“Do not fret. I knew this day was coming and I am proud to go out protecting my people and protecting you, the dragon slayer… our cazador de dragones, our campeón del dragon.”

“W-What does that mean?” Gary asked, he was already crying. 

“Slayer of Dragon. Dragon Champion,” Ajo answered. “Campeón de la victoria, a title for the hero of our tribe. I shall relay this tale to all our people. This dark champion, Campeón oscuro, her victory over blood. Victoria sobre la sangre.”

“Victoria, eh?” John hummed.

“It means victory and is our greatest honor we can bestow upon one not of tribal blood.”

“Parientes de tribu,” Rui coughed out, “Tribal kin, we welcome you. Both of you.”

“M-Me to?” Gary asked in awe.

Ajo shared an amused glance with Rui. 

“El que salvó al campeón. He who saved the champion,” Ajo confirmed, “your tribal name we grant you, Lanzador de espadas, Escudero. The sword thrower, her squire.”  
John snorted, but Gary was filled with awe. “Escudero. I humbly accept this honor. Thank you!”

Rui coughed, a spray of blood confirming his injuries from the dragon’s tail had struck vital areas. 

“Rui, I… I can try healing?” John asked, suddenly desperate to save this brilliant, kind old man. 

“You are not a practitioner of the light, Victoria. Fear not, I pass in peace. Ajo, serve Victoria and guide them well. Your talents should not be forgotten nor forsaken, Ajo. And Victoria...”

John leaned forward as Rui began to speak his tribal tongue, knowing she could understand him. 

“Sé de tu sangre, chica. No teman. No te nombra, sino que es parte de lo que eres. No temas a la oscuridad. Abrázalo. La señora no es un mero título para alguien como tú. Rezaré por tu alma desde los cielos.” (I know of your blood, girl. Do not fear it. It does not name you, but instead is a part of who you are. Do not fear the darkness. Embrace it. Mistress is not a mere title for one such as yourself. I shall pray for your soul from the heavens.)

“Rui?” Gary whispered, but it was obvious to all, the old man was now gone.

*LEGENDS*

John drowned herself in alcohol the entire next day. She did not let anyone into her room, and she watched, her emotions numbed, as the tribe carried the body of Santa Rubio, their curandero, through the streets, weeping and celebrating his victorious death. 

“Victorious, eh Mate? Victoria…” She wanted to laugh at the title, but a part of her felt honored and the other part, felt disgusted with herself to have such a title. She did not deserve it. Not at the expense of the old man. “Fated, huh?”

The following day, her hangover was as much a legend as the story of her victory now being whispered and spread throughout the streets of Peru. 

“We should leave,” she told Gary that morning, “we need to warn the legends. I dug deep into my contacts last night and this was no incident. With the demise of Mallus, a door was opened in Hell and he and that dragon, were not the only things to get out.”

“Your leaving, Senorita Constantine?” a voice called. 

“Ajo,” she greeted. “We need to go. That demon is not the last of its kind. There are more out there and it’s our job to find and destroy them.”

“Then peace be with you, Victoria. It was Rui’s will I serve you. If at anytime you need me, I am there.”

“Thank you.”

ARUBA, 2018

“Good call, Mick,” Zari hummed with pleasure, the fruit and the sun, both so enjoyably refreshing. 

“When I said Aruba, I meant me, not all of you!” Mick growled. 

“Still, nothing helps a broken heart like a good tan”, Nate sighed, ignoring his hot-headed companion. “Should have invited Adam, Sara.”

“Oh, we have plans,” Sara confirmed with a smile, “and until then, he’s busy fixing all those pesky anachronisms we left behind.”

“Well, that’s the thing about defeating an ancient time demon, everything else seems boring,” Ray chuckled.

“I’m good with boring,” Nate whispered in agreement. 

Everyone muttered their own confirmations of that statement. 

Suddenly a shadow blocked the sun, making everyone look up.

“Hey idiot, get out of here. This is a private beach,” Mick growled. 

“Fancy meeting you lot out here,” came the badly butchered attempt at a British accent. 

“Constantine?” Ray gaped.

A goofy laugh broke the façade.   
“Did you really think I was her?” Gary grinned. “It’s me. See the pants?” He beckoned to the black pants he wore rather than her short skirt. He wasn’t that cosplay crazy. 

“Gary, Ray obviously has been day drinking,” Nate explained.

“The wig’s too much, right?” Gary asked, still smirking as he played with the blond strands.

“No, it’s…” Zari searched for the word, “very first-lady like.”

Gary frowned, quickly taking it off his head. 

“Gary, what do you want?” Sara asked, annoyed.

“He’s been with me, love!”

Everyone stared as the real Constantine arrived. Her true to style short black skirt and knee-high leather boots making every man’s head turn as she made her way onto the beach, blonde hair flowing in the wind, glowing gold like an otherworldly saint. That is, until she opens her mouth. 

“I need a word with you, sorry lot.”

She dropped the item she was carrying, and everyone sat up, intrigued.

“Now, whose brilliant idea was it to let an ancient demon out of his bloody cage?”

Nate gawked as the head of a dragon was revealed. 

“Sara’s,” he whispered.

Sara frowned, suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable. 

“Well you opened a door, love, and Mallus wasn’t the only thing that got out.”


	5. Sparkle Sauce

John stood waiting in the corner of the kitchen. She could hear Sara and Adam in the bedroom but didn’t feel the need to interrupt. She knew, eventually, her chance to talk with them would come. Sure enough, not too much later, Sara opened the bedroom door and made her way out. The click of the lighter, warning her of the presence in the room. 

“Hello, John,” Sara sighed.

“You know tonight really isn’t the time for celebration Sara. The darkness, its rising.”

“What are you doing here? And what does that even mean?” she asked, grabbing the cigarette from the younger girls’ lips before she could light it. 

“Mallus wasn’t the only prisoner to escape when you decided to pull back the veil between our worlds.”

“And yet for the past five months, the timeline has been quiet. If you wanted to come and see me, all you had to do is ask.”

“Five months is the blink of an eye for an immortal monster. Look, this is your bloody mess Sara, so stop playing tiddlywinks with the hubby and get ready for the fight that is coming.”

“What if this is who I am now?” Sara asked, arms crossed. 

“Really? This is who you are?” John asked, looking around. “Fuzzy throws and fluffy pink slippers?”

Sara snarled her lip in slight discomfort. “I like my pink fluffy slippers, thank you very much.”

John snorted.

“Okay, look, reunions over. Time to go.”

Quickly, John began to chant and dropped a handful of bones on the counter before Sara could shove her out the door. 

“What am I looking at?” Sara sighed. 

“The knuckle bones of a martyred saint, obviously. They act as a divining rod able to detect the presence of being not belonging to our world.”

“My team spent the last five months scouring the timeline for another one of your mythical creatures. Want to know what we found? Nothing.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” A voice cut in. 

Both Sara and John looked up to see Adam standing in the doorway. Sara quickly shoved the bones back behind her. 

“Is everything alright?” Adam questioned, stepping forward.

“Yeah, everything is great,” Sara confirmed.

“I was just telling Sara-…” John started. 

“About an exorcism she has to do tomorrow in Georgetown. It’s really nothing you want to hear before bedtime. Come back again soon, John. Don’t be shy about that doorbell.”

“See you later, Sharpie!” John called out as she went. 

She knew sooner than later; Sara would be contacting her. 

*LEGENDS*

Sure enough, when John was deeply asleep, the sound of knocking on her hotel door woke her up several days later. Irritated, because this was the first real sleep that she’d had in several days due to persistent nightmares, she answered the door with an angry retort. 

“Can no one read the do not disturb sign on the bloody door-… Sara?” she paused, pushing down her anger, though she was still a bit peeved. “Yeah uh, can’t talk right now love. I’m a bit busy working and I…”

“You were right,” Sara spoke, cutting her off. 

John smirked. “What was that, love?”

Sara rolled her eyes. 

“You were right, John. There is a magical creature at Woodstock, now let’s go.”

“You know,” John teased, “for someone with a time traveling machine, you are in an awful big hurry.”

“John, the unicorn has already gored two hippies.”

“Whoo, a unicorn?” John became increasingly more interested. 

“Yeah.”

“Well alright, I’m in. But first, I need to know, was any of your team musked by the beast?”

“If your talking about its sparkle sauce, then yeah. Why?”

John chuckled. “Oh, they are in for one hell of a ride.”

*LEGENDS*

“You know Sara, a unicorn is not a bloody joke. You might want to get your boyfriend on the blower.” 

Noting Sara’s look of dismissal, John huffed a laugh as they made their way through the woods at Woodstock. 

“You didn’t tell Director Sharpe that you let all the monsters out to play, did you?”

“Adam and I are in a great place right now. In fact, better than great. He asked me to move in with him and I said yes. So, why rock the boat unless absolutely necessary?”

“Because when the boat eventually tips, you’ll both bloody drown,” John snapped. 

“Nice.”

“Just trying to look after you, Sara. You and I are similar. We are both survivors, but our survival comes at a terrible cost.”

Pulling Sara to a stop in their walk, John faced this woman she had come to consider a friend. 

“Look, Sara, you can take it from a person who has caused nothing but misery to everyone she’s ever loved. Trust me, end it with Adam before it’s too late.”

Sara rolled her eyes and continued walking, forcing John to keep up. 

“You ever think that you cause misery not because of some romantic ‘I was born to walk alone’ crap, but because you can be an ass who doesn’t know how to trust others?”

John chuckled, stopping again.

“You know what I trust? I trust that people around me get hurt, killed, or far, far worse.”

“You think that I’m not scared? That I don’t know grief?” Sara questioned. “I am not willing to turn my back on life because of fear, and that is exactly what you are doing, John.”

Johnna rolled her eyes, scowling and continuing to walk. 

“Our friends and family, they don’t make us weaker,” Sara spoke, her hand reaching for Constantine’s and once again pulling the younger girl to a stop. “They make us stronger.”

John chuckled dryly, but Sara smiled with a sudden idea.

“You know what you need?”

John hummed, humoring her. 

“You need to be a part of team.”

John snorted, chuckling to herself sarcastically. 

Thoughts of her original team in Newcastle and the team she had formed with Chas and Zed came rushing back, but both she and Sara became distracted from continuing their conversation when they came upon a very interesting scene. 

“You were saying?” John mocked. 

Sara could only groan as they both watched her crew acting crazy due to the effects of the Unicorn. 

*LEGENDS*

John dropped the heavy book onto Sara’s desk. 

“This is King Solomon’s original grimoire-, the oldest magical textbook in existence. Now, if there is a spell to quell our equine friend, it will be in here.”

“Well, not to pressure you John, but the entire fate of the sexual revolution hangs in the balance.”

“That is my favorite revolution,” John agreed with a dreamy look. 

“John!”

Both Sara and John looked up when Ray’s voice cut across the silence. Behind him, Nate, Zari, and Mick followed, all looking a bit groggy. 

“Welcome aboard,” Ray smiled.

“Hey, Ray big-man! Glad to see you are all back from the land of milk and honey,” John laughed.

Snickering as the four of them shifted uncomfortably. 

“I’m still a little confused, “Zari spoke up, “how it is we were-,”

“-Roofied by a horse,” Mick finished for her.

“Ah, well that beast sprays a powerful mind-altering hallucinogen to disarm its prey,” John explained before her eyes lit upon the page she was reading. “Ah!”

John pointed at the book. “How to expel a magical creature from the mortal realm. Now the ingredients aren’t so easy to come by. I don’t suppose any of you have the saliva from a nine-fingered man, now do you?”

“You could chop off one of my pinkies,” Ray offered, looking at his hands.

“No, Ray, don’t be the giving tree,” Nate sighed, “Now as every deadhead knows, Jerry Garcia was missing most of his middle finger on his right hand in a wood chopping accident.”

John was impressed. That was a helpful bit of information. 

“Cool, so how do we get his saliva?” Zari questioned. 

“Leave that to me,” Nate confirmed. 

“We also need the protection stone of a powerful shaman.”

“I got this one,” Mick stated, heading out. 

“And the lock of a doomed woman.”

“Oh, I know this one!” Ray cheered.

The three of them quickly departing back to Woodstock. 

“And lastly…” John frowned. “Quis virginem.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Sara questioned. 

Zari also looked confused.

John sighed, a bit mortified. “A virgin.”

“A virgin in Woodstock?” Ray laughed through the comm. “Good luck with that. This is the least celibate place in history.”

“Are you serious?!” Nate yelled as he ran.

“Yeah, apparently virgins are like catnip to unicorns,” Zari confirmed. 

Sara groaned. “And we need one to volunteer. Rory, do you see any virgins where you’re at?”

“No,” came his reply. 

“Come to think of it, I do know one virgin,” John started. 

Sara shook her head, knowing exactly who John was talking about. “No, not a chance.”

*LEGENDS*

Gary stood there; his shirt gone and, in his hand, sits a pomegranate. “This feels wrong.”

“Well don’t worry, we will be watching from a short distance and you’ll be… fine,” Ray confirmed hesitantly. 

“What am I supposed to do with the pomegranate?” 

“Oh, the unicorns, they uh, can’t get enough of them, mate,” John lied. 

“Yeah, that and human hearts,” Zari whispered to Ray.

Sara rolled her eyes at their antics. 

“So, the pomegranate is the bait?” Gary questioned again. 

“Yeah, we wouldn’t put an interim member of our team in jeopardy,” Sarah confirmed, “Right guys?”

“I’m an interim legend?” Gary asked, smiling ear to ear. 

“Oh yeah.”

“Of course.”

“Sure.”

“Well then…” Gary suddenly stopped, curious, he turned to John. “One more question. Are you sure that I’m a virgin? Because that thing we did…” 

“Positive, mate,” John confirmed, ignoring the smiles and looks the others were sending her way. 

After some setup, Gary stood in the field alone. “Yoo-hoo! Mr. Unicorn! I got a nice juicy pomegranate!”

“Admit it, it’s fun working with a team,” Sara badgered John from the sideline.

“Well if dear Gary gets eaten, it only goes to prove my point: people who care about us, die.”

Sara rolled her eyes.

“What was that?” Gary shouted from the field. 

“Oh, nothing mate, your golden, carry on yeah? Hold it up a bit, hold it up! Perfect, that’s the money!”

The sound of a unicorn whinnying echoed through the trees.

It was a beautiful sight, for anyone who didn’t know what it truly was, such as Gary. 

“Come on, pretty pony. Come on, come on. Enjoy your snack,” Gary prompted. 

As the unicorn came closer however, Gary began to see the truth of the scenario. 

“Oh no, that’s not pomegranate juice is it? Guys?!”

“John, whatever your going to do, do it now!” Sara urged.

“All right, here goes.” 

John tipped the mixture back and closed her eyes. 

“I don’t want to die a virgin!” Gary yelled.

Sara was horrified. “Are you meditating right now?!” she slapped her friends’ arm. “John?!”

Quickly, John began to chant, a symbol forming upon her forehead, as the unicorn’s beautiful outer shell burned away to reveal the monster within, the blackest and ugliest of demonic appearances. 

Eyes lit with a power buried deep within her bloodline that she rarely tapped into, John focused her power and cast the spell.

Gary ducked away as the Unicorn drew closer, but he was at peace when he saw John standing behind the creature, her eyes aglow like that of an other worldly being, and her magic, in full display.

“Come on, John,” Sara whispered.

Finishing her chant, John shouted out the words of the spell and twisted her arms to open a blazing fiery portal that will lead the creature straight back to hell. 

The unicorn, realizing it was being sucked in, fought back. It leapt and grabbed its prey by the hand with its teeth, determined not to let this meal get away. Gary screamed in pain and began shouting for help!

Ray, Sara, and Zari hurried to help him. Unable to drag Gary away from its clamped teeth, Zari grabbed the knife from Sara’s belt and tossed it into the unicorn’s head, causing it to rear back in pain. Relieved and thinking it over, everyone relaxed, but then the creature took one more giant leap with its remaining power and snagged a single piece of flesh.

Screaming in horror and pain, Gary could only stand there and whimper as he held his hands over his now badly bleeding chest.

John collapsed to the ground; her energy spent as the portal closed. 

“Gary, you okay?” Sara questioned.

“Just a scratch I think.”

“Where did the unicorn go?” Ray asked Constantine who was still on her knees. 

“Sent that monster straight to hell, didn’t I? Yup folks, that is some Grade A magic right there,” she boasted.

Gary wanted to relish in this moment for his friend, but when he looked down, he could only gasp in horror and pain.

“The unicorn bit my nipple off!”

“Well hey,” Zari started, “maybe Gideon can make you a new one.”

“Oh, forget it mate. It’s a badge of honor,” John praised. “You see, my soul is heading straight to Hell, but your nipple just got there a little bit ahead of me.”

“It’s like we are two birds of the same, dark feather,” Gary said dreamily. 

John stared. Creepy.

“Yeah, yeah that’s right, mate,” John forcibly smiled. “Come on Gary, let’s grab a beer, alright? And talk about this situation concerning your virginity.” 

*LEGENDS*

John was putting out one of many cigarettes she had been smoking for the past several hours, when Sara knocked on the door of her apartment. With a quick incantation, the door opened for her visitor. 

“No.”

“I haven’t even asked you anything yet,” Sara remarked.

“It’s not even magic love, its deduction,” John sighed. “You need me to join the legends despite knowing that needing me, always causes somebody trouble.”

“What is up with you?” Sara questioned, concerned. “Something must have happened for you to be like this. You seem more miserable lately, than usual.”

“Look, Sara… You and I are friends. And I like friends. Friends are useful, but roommates…, see Sara I would rather bloody kill myself, than move in with you lot.”

Sara frowned, but stayed silent before getting up. She was hurt and angry, but something was wrong with John and she wasn’t going to pour gasoline on an already blazing hot fire.

“See you around, John,” she commented instead, as she walked through the door. 

John huffed, taking another swig of alcohol. 

“So long, Sara Lance,” she whispered, just as the lights of the room began to flash. The snarl of a creature could be heard reverberating through the air. 

With a laugh and the bottle of alcohol still in hand, John turned in the direction she could sense the monster. 

“Who wants some? I’m a nasty piece of work, I’m warning you.”

Without showing itself, what she knew was a hellhound jumped and knocked her flat against the floor, its paws holding her down.

“Get your bloody paws off of me!” She shouted, screaming as the thing nipped and clawed at her lightly. Shallow grooves began to appear on her legs, arms, and back. They were bleeding, but not enough to be dangerous so long as they were treated fairly soon.

Finally, the beast vanished, and John was able to get up, struggling against the pressure of her injuries. It was only once she was fully up, that she stared in horror at the mirror, now broken into several pieces, some having cut into her skin when it exploded into shards, and an invisible force having used her blood to write a message. 

“I’m coming for you, Johnny”, was all it said, and John felt her stomach bottom out. 

“Chas… Chas…” She whimpered.


	6. A Disney Nightmare

“I hope this works. We need a way to pinpoint magical threats to the timeline. I mean, who knows what kind of creatures are out there wreaking havoc on history?” Ray commented as he worked on constructing a magical sensor for Gideon. 

“Like vampires,” Mick added.

“Werewolves,” Sara hummed.

“Gremlins,” Zari nodded.

“Aswangs.”

Everyone stared at Ray.

“Cannibalistic Filipino were-beasts with proboscis-like tongues.”

Everyone continued to stare. Ray shifted uncomfortably.

“I’ve been doing some research, just in case.”

“I thought that’s why we have Constantine?” Zari questioned. 

“Yeah, about that,” Sara started, “Constantine is…”

“…Tired, hungover, and in need of a stiff one. Dealer’s choice as to what that’s a euphemism for.”

“She is here,” Sara finished her earlier sentence, completely confused to see Constantine dragging in a large suitcase. 

“Yeah, you know, I meant what I said about joining you lot,” John started, seeing the look in Sara’s eye, “but then I pictured that same lot squaring off against some of the manky buggers that I’ve come up against, and I thought yeah, you know what? You are all bloody doomed without me. One aswang would take down your entire team without breaking a sweat.”

Ray cheered; his research having paid off. 

“New legend alert! I better go update the chore wheel!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on sunshine. I’m not a bloody legend, okay? I am merely offering my services as a consultant.”

Gideon suddenly gave a bing, interrupting them. 

“Well look at that, our magic sensor is already working. Now we can track down our… wait, do we even have a special name for these magical fugitives?” Zari asked. 

“Well, I was thinking,” Ray started, “since they are mysteries involving mythical beings, we could go with myth-teries.”

Everyone stared.

“Fugitives it is,” Sara confirmed. “What does it say?”

“Salem, Massachusetts, 1692.”

“First day on the job and your taking me to the bloody witch trials,” John snorted. 

“Well I hope you are feeling morally superior,” Sara grinned, “because we are getting our puritan purit-on.”

Everyone stared.

“That was too much, wasn’t it?”

SALEM, 1692

“I’m telling you; the machine is clearly boogered, Sara. There is nothing magical about puritan New England.”

“I know John, I was there, but it could all be different now.”

“Oh, come on, if a creature landed there, would it idle in the absolute worse possible place for magic? People of Salem are paranoid and petty. And as every magical creature knows, if you want to get weird, you go to New York.”

“Then we need to find it, before it flees,” Sara argued. 

“Alright well, I agreed to help you save history, not take part in your little role-playing adventures. Call me if you find anything.”

Sara rolled her eyes as John walked away. 

“If she’s staying, then I’m staying,” Mick commented, “besides, its not fun in puritan times. The church banned burning people at the stake.”

“Well they did not actually burn people. That was the middle ages. The puritans used the gallows, but yeah, sure, stay,” Sara grumbled, annoyed. 

“You know,” Zari started, “I actually miss having someone Nate-splain history to us.”

*LEGENDS*

That day, Mick decided John Constantine lived to irritate people. 

“Alright”, John started as she walked into the kitchen to the food generator, ignoring Mick who was standing to the side. “Gideon love, mix me up some ingredients so I can restock the apothecary, will you?”

“Out of my way, I need some mustard,” Mick started. 

“Yeah, yeah, just a minute.”

John rattled off several things, each one grosser than the next and Mick could feel his appetite dying. 

Then when Mick was going to the bathroom, it smelt like something actually had died. 

“Oh, sorry mate, spell book bound in human skin. It can get a bit rank if you don’t soak it in water,” John said as she exited the bathroom. 

And finally, Mick had enough when he found that same infuriating woman, sitting in his chair, watching the television, and drinking Sara’s whiskey collection. 

The two were still going back and forth at one another when Sara walked into the room.

“Sorry to break up the bonding session,” she interrupted, “but we found our fugitive and we think it’s a real witch.”

“A real witch would be off her trolley to hang around here,” John argued, “I should know, considering I am one, though I prefer the term sorceress.”

“Well we just saw a woman command a murder of crows, … and now I know why they call it that,” Ray shivered. 

“Jane was bound, gagged, and taken away. Those birds were just protecting her from the mob. I say more power to them,” Zari defended. 

“And I agree with you in theory,” Sara confirmed, “but we still have to remove that power. Gideon, what do you have on Jane Hawthorne?”

“On October 29, 1692, Jane Hawthorne’s execution was at the center of what came to be known as the burning of Salem.”

“On the day she hung, all the people of Salem spontaneously combusted,” Ray read out loud, “The whole town was set ablaze.”

“Sounds like my kind of woman,” Mick commented.

“Well the incident was enough to convince the public that witches were real,” Ray finished. 

“Whatever it is, Jane is at the center of it,” Sara confirmed. 

“Hang on a minute,” John started, “You said that she was gagged.”

“Yeah?”

“Did any of you actually hear her cast the spell?”

They all shook their head no.

“You see, mateys, spells are a verbal game. Was there anyone else around there, someone who would want to protect Jane?”

“Prudence,” Zari confirmed.

“Her daughter,” Sara explained.

“Ah, then a malevolent demon has attached itself to the child and the mother is being blamed. I’ve seen it a million times over. Let’s get to it, shall we?”

“Well, look who has started to care,” Sara huffed, amused. 

“Ha, but I am not wearing a costume,” John reminded them. “I’ll see you later, big man,” she winked at Mick who growled, feeling very confused about his feelings for that girl. 

*LEGENDS*

Prudence was walking through the forest, her little song almost chilling within the dead silence of the forest. Around her, the legends waited until the timing was right and then they stepped from the shadows to catch her off guard. 

The snapping of a twig behind the girl had her twisting around, startled, eyes wide. “Why dost thou follow me?” 

“Hi Prudence,” Sara started, “We just want to help.”

“Your strangers,” Prudence argued, “I have no need of your aid. Now be gone with haste.”

As she said these words, the girl backed up, right into the circle made of twigs john had formed earlier. 

“John…” Sara started.

John began to chant, appearing from out of the woods, her hands spinning as the incantation trapped the girl from moving. 

Suddenly, dark laughter echoed all around them.

“What magic is this?” the girl asked, frightened. 

“Look, it’s going to be okay,” Sara told her, trying to calm the girl down.

“Agent of the damned, show yourself you fetid creature. Show yourself you cursed beast. Reveal your hideous form!”

A strong fog spread across the ground and in a sparkling show of blue light, everyone could only stare dumfounded at the woman who appeared before them. 

“Hello!”

Sara gawked. “What in the Disney hell is this?”

The monster, a kind looking elderly woman just smiled, dressed in a sparkling tiara with a beautiful shimmering blue gown. 

Mick couldn’t help himself. He laughed. 

“You have to be kidding me. That’s your monster?”

“Monster?” the woman asked, offended. “Why, I am nothing of the sort. I am a fairy godmother, and I mean only to make dreams come true, because a dream is a wish your heart-…”

“Don’t say another word!” Sara scowled, “Constantine, please tell me you have something for this.”

John was honestly struck a tad speechless. “This is… uh, new.” 

Zari stepped up to bat. “Prudence, this is your fairy godmother?”

“It is,” the girl smiled, “she protects me.”

“By hurting other people,” Sara argued.

“Not at all,” the fairy argued, “I only want to help little Prudence, for you see…”

To everyone’s shock, music began to play around them, and the godmother began to sing. 

“There are times the world is scary…”

John stared, still a bit in shock and more than a little suspicious. 

“Times the world is bad… the godmother continued. “but when your godmothers a fairy, there’s no reason to be sad!”

“Is that music?” Ray laughed, excited, pointing to the sky. 

Mick seemed a bit disgruntled by all this. 

“So, fear not, if things don’t look to be the way that you prefer. Just make a wish and look to me, I will sing these magic words…”

“Shut up!” Mick finally had enough. 

The music stopped and Ray was disappointed. “I didn’t want her to stop singing.”

“Oh, to hell with this,” John started her chant to send the creature back to hell but stopped quickly and backed up a few paces when the fairy suddenly drew closer. 

“Oh my, you don’t want to do that.”

“And why wouldn’t we?” Sara questioned, defensive of her people. 

The fairy smiled. “Because Prudence and I share a bond. If you send me to hell, she goes right down with me.”

John scowled as the fairy turned to her child.

“These people want to send us to hell. You don’t want to go to hell, do you, dearie?”

Prudence seemed frightened. “No.”

“Would you like me to make them go away?”

Prudence nodded.

“As you wish.”

The fairy turned, her smile turning cold. 

“We’ll start with some tree roots,” she began to sing again, “up from the ground…”

Vines began to twist around the Legends, locking them into place, unable to move. 

“Prudence!” John shouted, “You don’t need her!”

“And then summon some birds,” the fairy continued to sing, “what a beautiful sound…”

Crows began to caw and even Prudence seemed a bit uncertain. 

“Okay, you can stop singing now,” Ray panted. 

Ignoring them, the fairy continued on. “And just as they gather over your head…”

“Prudence!” Sara shouted, “you don’t have to do this!”

“I tell them ‘Attack!’ and you’ll all end up-…”

“We’re here to save your mother!” Zari tried again.

“-…dead!”

“Godmother, wait,” Prudence spoke up. “Release them.”

“As you wish,” the fairy sighed, before smiling at the girl. “I am at your call, when you need me.”

With a flutter of light, the fairy vanished.

Ray chuckled nervously. 

“You have to admit though, that was a catchy tune.”

*LEGENDS*

John grabbed her grimoire the moment they appeared back on the ship as Mick and Ray took Prudence to find her somewhere to relax. As she searched through the text, she cursed.

“What, what is it?” Sara asked.

“The godmother was telling the truth. We can’t send her to hell without sending Prudence down with her. Bloody fairy godmothers. They are like parasites who feed off their hosts. Their magic, it only works on the whim of their charge. The girl will have to reject the godmother.”

“Who’s going to give up that kind of power, especially in her situation?”

“We just have to give her what she wants,” Zari spoke. “If we save her mom, she won’t need the godmother.”

“Z, we can’t. I checked the historical record. Jane Hawthorne was executed as a witch. That was canon before the fairy godmother affected the timeline. We can’t change that.”

“So, we’re just going to let them do it?” Zari questioned, “Sara, this is exactly what is like where I’m from, the tribalism, the persecution, just because someone is different. While other people stand by and do nothing.”

Sara sighed. “I don’t want it go down like this either, Z. I’m sorry, but we don’t have a choice.”

“Look, I promised her that I would help her.”

“Well you made a promise you can’t keep,” Sara argued. “The priority here is separating Prudence from her godmother. That’s how we are going to save more lives.”

“So, in the meantime, we just let her think we are saving her mom?”

Sara sighed.

Zari shook her head, disgusted. “Great.”

*LEGENDS*

John growled, throwing down book after book that she had looked through. 

“Useless pieces of…” 

A mocking laugh cut her rant short.

“I know you are there, you old bat. Why don’t you show yourself, eh? We’ll have ourselves a little chat.”

“A simple please and thank-you would do, my pet,” she replied as she appeared behind John.

The sorceress gave a sly grin as the fairy chuckled. “Although, it has been quite amusing, watching you prattle on.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, Granny. You’ve had your fun and now its time to let go of dear Prudence and be on your merry way.”

“All I want is to make the world a happier place,” the fairy exclaimed with a false smile. 

“Oh? You got her mother thrown in the bloody clink and what about that block who had his eyes pecked out of his skull, eh?”

The fairy scowled. “That man was a liar. They are all liars and simple-minded pests like that must be taught a lesson.”

“oh, ‘pests’, is it? Interesting choice of words, that.” 

“Before Prudence, all the girls I helped were just take, take, take. ‘I want a new dress, godmother. I want to go to the ball, godmother.’ So, I gave, and I gave, no matter how absurd the request. I mean, who would ever choose to wear glass slippers? Imagine in the blisters!”

John had to admit, she had a point. 

“And what did I get in return?” the fairy continued, “a thousand years locked away in a dank and miserable dimension.”

“So, it was humans who put you away, eh?” John smirked. “Well serves you right, you bitter old nag. You don’t want Prudence happy. You want her raging. That’s how you settle the score, by using a child’s anger to rain down hellfire on those poor people out there.”

“Hellfire, you say?” the fairy grinned, “Not a bad idea. Ta-ta my pet. My Prudence will be needing me soon.”

John scowled with a huffed groan. If not for the girl, that fairy would be roasted by now. 

*LEGENDS*

John sighed, giving up the books as she started through the halls of the ship to search for the others when he rounded the corner, only to see the mad fairy herself and Prudence walking with hurried steps. 

“Bloody hell,” she commented before hurryingly starting an incantation.

“Shut up!” Prudence yelled.

John was shocked when her mouth suddenly vanished, but she had to do something. Starting forward, Prudence frowned. “Stay back!”

The fairy tossed up her hands and John felt her feet leave the ground, her body flying across the floor. Her head struck the wall, knocking her out cold. 

The fairy grinned, directing the girl forward and ignoring the body of the unconscious sorceress. 

“Come dearie, let’s show these nasty villagers what real magic looks like.”

*LEGENDS*

John groaned, her head aching as she woke. Looking around, she quickly realized no one else was on board. Hurrying, she opened the door to the town, still unable to speak, hurrying towards the place of execution. Upon arrival, she stood back and watched the proceedings a bit amongst the frozen in time groupings of villagers. 

“This town, these people, they killed so many others already,” Prudence was arguing with Zari. “They deserve to burn.”

“And they will pay for their ignorance, but not like that.”

“How else will they learn, dearie?” the godmother asked, scowling. “If these people aren’t taught a lesson today, they will go and hurt others for days and years to come. You come from the future. Can you honestly tell this child that the hearts of men change in all that time?”

“Do they?” Prudence asks.

“No, they don’t,” Zari confirms. “People always fear what they don’t understand, and that fear turns them into monsters. But we can’t let it turn us into monsters, too. We have to better than them.”

“Be better? What nonsense!” The fairy shouted, “Be stronger, my pet! Show them the power that you possess. Make them grovel at your feet, where they belong. Think of your mother.”

“Yes, think of your mother,” Zari agreed, “What would she want you to do? Get blood on your hands or forgive them, for they know no what they do?”  
“Godmother…” the girl spoke.

The fairy grinned maniacally. “Fire and brimstone coming right-…”

“I release you,” Prudence finished. 

The villagers suddenly all breathed as one, no longer frozen in time as the godmother’s magic vanished. Pushing to the front at this sudden development, John was pleased when her mouth reappeared, allowing her to speak again. 

“That’s more like it,” she sighed, wiggling her lips to regain feeling as she hurried forward through the crowds.   
“Help!” the old minister shouted from where he was about to burn on the pyre.

Zari sighed and grabbed her jewel from the flames, her fingers burning from its heat as she used the totem to put out the fire.

“You vile, meddling bitch!” the godmother shouted, furious at Zari.

John finally pushed beyond the crowds and chuckled, already going into an incantation. 

The godmother turned and flinched when a magical rope swirled around her body, binding her tightly so she could no longer run. 

“And that is for taking my mouth, you silly old bat,” the sorceress spat, ignoring the fearful crowd around her who witnessed the magic. 

*LEGENDS*

“Where on Earth are you taking me?” the godmother complained as John forcibly pulled her a long like walking a dog through the woods.

“Oh, not on Earth, love,” John smirked, “Where I am sending you is a touch hotter, or so I hear.”

“You intend to send me to hell.”

“I could be… persuaded otherwise,” John began. 

“I’m listening,” the fairy frowned.

“You need a host to conduct your magic and let’s just say, I’m in need of a miracle.”

“You want to be my new host?” the Fairy gaped. 

“Tit for tat, dearie,” John replied mockingly.

“John Constantine…” she laughed, and John frowned. “Yes, my pet, I know exactly who you are. I know you are on the run and I know who is coming for you, and believe me, I’d rather face hell than piss him off.”

A strange sort of rage boiled deep within John and she turned, eyes glowing with a power she very rarely felt unless extremely focused on the magic within her blood. The fairy flinched when she saw the girl’s eyes, filled to the brim with hellfire. 

“Well, I am happy, to oblige,” John spat out. 

With a single clap of her hands, she formed the portal, not even casting the enchantment it normally took to do so, though not noticing. The fire faded from her eyes as she calmed, focusing her power into the incantation to drag the fairy godmother forcibly into the depths of hell. 

“This is your last chance, Granny,” she offered the fairy.

Despite the obvious fear on the fairy’s face, she stood her ground. “There is no helping you, dearie, you are more damned than I.”

“Bippity, boppity…” and the fairy vanished, her words lost, as the portal sucked her in, leaving only the fairy crown behind, still smoldering.


	7. Constantine Family Reunion

John listened as the crew discussed a new gig the following week. 

“Nate will be back soon. In the meantime, we need to go back before the monarchy goes anarchy.”

“Never thought I’d get to meet the Queen,” John hummed.

“Sorry, you still don’t,” Sara started. “Setting off Ray’s magic sensor, the queen’s favorite new band, ‘The Smell’.”

“The smell?” John questioned. “Never heard of them and I know every rubbish punk band in London.”

“That’s because they didn’t exist in this timeline,” Sara confirmed. “Gideon?”

“The Queen’s cheeky jig to one of their songs launched The Smell’s rise to stardom. They were known as much for their music as for a series of improbably anti-establishment pranks.”

“All with a magical signature,” Ray adds. 

“Okay, so we are looking for someone in the band?” Zari guesses. 

“We could be dealing with demonic possession, mind control, illusion, or maybe just the run-of-the-mill royal dementia… hold on a minute…” John peered at the picture of the band. “this one, that is your magic man right there. Obsessed with riches, given to mischief, that Irishman there is probably a leprechaun.”

“S-Sorry,” Zari started, “but are you being serious or racist?”

“Both love,” John confirmed. 

“Why is the weasel running the show?” Mick growled. 

“If you have a problem with me, pie-head,” John snapped, “why don’t you just say?”

Mick stared. 

“I have a problem with you.”

“I’m running this show,” Sara ignored them, “and I say we need to get close to that band, which shouldn’t be a problem because everyone left on this ship is a punk.”

“Except for haircut,” Mick interrupted. “He hasn’t broken a rule in his life.”

“Yup, not a single rule,” Zari teased, knowing fully well what Ray did concerning Nora.

London, late 1900s 

“The hole, the cradle of punk rock and the stickiest floor on the British Isles,” John smirked.

“Sounds lovely,” Ray joked, “you kids have fun. I will have a bottle of hand sanitizer when you come back.”

As the four Legends consisting of Sara, Mick, John, and Zari walked into the cradle, John could only laugh at the rocksters on stage.

“You’ve got to love that sound,” she grinned.

Zari frowned, barely able to hear her over the sound. “What?”

“The music! It’s bloody fantastic,” John smiled.

Zari decided to tease. “Sorry I can’t hear you over the terrible music!”

“WE ARE THE SMELL AND WE WILL BE BACK WHEN WE FEEL LIKE IT!” the group shouted to the crowd before taking a break.

“Okay guys,” Sara started, “this is our chance. Someone needs to slip backstage and get in with the band.”

“Yeah, leave it to me,” John volunteered, “I used to play here with Mucous Membrane a lifetime ago. I know my way around and besides, your all bloody yanks.”

“Not you!” Mick grabbed her coat, pulling her back.

“Why not?” Sara questioned.

Mick frowned. “I don’t like her.”

John huffed a laugh. “Always perfidious albion, is it? Never trust a brit?”

“Something like that,” Mick confirmed. 

“Guys, really, we don’t have time for this,” Zari started.

“Somehow Mister Rory here hasn’t realized that if he is going to play with fire, he’s going to get burned…” John chanted into her hand before casually shooting a ball of fire at the man’s shoe. 

Mick stomped it out, furious, and grabbed for her again, sending a bottle into the back of her head which shattered glass upon impact and yet didn’t knock her out. Something he normally would have been impressed by if he hadn’t lost rational thought after being angered by this feisty little woman. 

“FIGHT!” Someone shouted and everyone broke out around them. 

Sara could only close her eyes in disgruntlement. 

*LEGENDS*

Sara listened as Ray explained the situation with the band. 

“I’m heading back to the waverider now,” Ray confirmed. 

“Nope,” Sara disagreed, “you Ray, are now our guy on the inside.”

“Look, loud music usually makes my nose bleed,” Ray argued back, “I am not a punk!”

“Well you are now. You stay with that band.”

“Ray! Ray, you there?” John shouted into the microphone.

Ray groaned at the feedback coming through on the comm. “Your pressing the button too hard.”

“Oh, right, yeah, it’s my first time,” John apologized, “Listen mate, there’s an old trick for unmasking leprechauns. You spill a bunch of grain in front of them on the floor, and they are compelled to count every kernel.”

“Really?” Ray smiled, “that sounds bizarre. That’s not true. Is that true?”

“That’s a stupid plan,” Mick interrupted. 

“Have you got a better one, big man?” John scowled, completely over this douche’s temper. 

“I don’t do magic tricks!” Mick snapped.

“Oh great, so the plan is no plan. Is that your idea?”

“Enough, both of you!” Sara cut in.

“You know what?” John huffed, “We are in the heart of old London Town. I’m going to go enjoy the sights. Good luck with your magic problem.”

Ray could only gape from on the other side of the comm. “Did you guys just make Constantine leave?”

“We will get back to you, Ray,” Sara sighed. 

She turned to Mick.

“Not your finest work, bud.”

“She’s going to get us killed.”

“You just don’t like people in trench coats!”

“That’s right, its like a sign showing they are a liar and have something to hide!”

“Look, I will have Zari follow her, okay, but in the meantime, we need to help Ray find this magical creature so we can send it to hell before this entire team falls apart.”

*LEGENDS*

John finally found it after walking around London the entire night; her mother’s old diner. Stepping inside, John took a seat at the bar and ordered a pint of beer and enjoyed a cigarette as she tried not to completely stare at the waitress behind the bar. Her mother…

“Another pint?” her mother asked, a gentle smile on her face as they locked eyes.

“Uh yeah, I’d love one.”

“You should probably have something in your stomach with this one,” her mother spoke, her tone warm.

“Aren’t you kind looking after me?” John smiled. 

She didn’t notice when Zari walked in. 

“I try my best,” her mother replied, grinning.

John chuckled. 

Zari, misinterpreting the sight, though John was flirting with the waitress. Not unheard of when it came to the sorceress who was known to have flings from time to time between stops with anything that had legs, she decided to tease. 

“Did she tell you that she’s a dark soul, cursed to walk the world alone?”

John tried not to let her annoyance bleed through onto her face. Not only did those words strike at her soul, but to have her mother hear it… she felt a sharp pain and fought to keep the power within her blood in check. 

As for her mother, the woman merely chuckled thinking it was a joke, which did help to soothe John’s anger. 

“Something like that.” She turned to John with a knowing smile. “I’ll be right back.”

John nodded, taking another swipe of her cigarette before turning to Zari with a hint of irritation. “How the bloody hell did you find me up here in Liverpool, eh?”

“Sara had me install a tracker into your comm,” Zari admitted.

“No one trusts Johnny, eh?” she laughed a tad dryly. “Can’t say I blame you lot. Oh wait… yes I can.”

“Yeah, well, she had a hunch your baser instincts would pull you off the mission.”

She wouldn’t tell John that Sara was more afraid of the girl’s drunken wallowing’s than her flings, but whatever the reason, Zari figured it was best to intervene. 

John just chuckled. “She’d be the one to know, wouldn’t she? Does it herself all the time.”

Zari cleared her throat, trying not to laugh.

“Here you are love,” John’s mother returned, setting the sandwich down before the younger girl. “Just give me a shout if you would like a water.”

John stared up at her mother, wanting nothing more than to hug the other woman, but knowing she couldn’t. Knowing that she never would. 

“Thanks, will do.”

As her mother walked away, Zari grabbed a chip and ate it, her eyes taking in John’s expression and mistaking it for lust. 

“That brooding anti-hero crap you pull, it must be a real panty dropper, huh?” she dug at the girl. 

John felt a sting of slight betrayal slice through her at the remark. Keeping her expression flat, she took a sip of her beer.

“You tell her you have four roommates and sleep on the couch?” Zari teased, making her voice go a little louder so that the woman might overhear her words.

John scowled into the beer, anger once again on the rise. “No, I didn’t. She’s my mum.”

Zari froze, her eyes locking on the sorceress with guilt. “I’m really wishing I had not said ‘panty dropper’.” 

John huffed a dry laugh. “Yup.”

The two sat there in uncomfortable silence for a while as Zari tried to regain confidence again enough to speak, and while John cooled her temper, enjoying eating a sandwich made by her mother. Something, that she had never got to do whilst growing up. 

Finally, Zari decided on a simple question. “Were you and your mom close?”

John frowned. “Just met her twenty minutes ago. Died in childbirth.”

Zari sighed. “Two for two. Sorry.”

John shrugged. “My dad, he used to call me killer. Blamed me for my mother’s death. Never let me forget it. He was so mad that I had the gall to somewhat look like her. Always sent him into a rage every time he saw me.”

“Father of the year, huh?” Zari whispered. 

John grunted in agreement, both understanding the things that went unsaid behind her words. John suddenly scowled, nodding towards the other end of the bar. 

“You wouldn’t guess that to look at him though, would you?”

Zari turned and it suddenly dawned on her why John was here. 

“You didn’t just happen to run into your parents, did you?”

“I’ve ruined a lot of lives, love, and that bastard is just the first to call me out on it.”

Zari rolled her eyes. 

“Listen, if you want to wallow in self-pity, the Waverider has got a lot of rooms for that. I’m partial to the kitchen myself.”

“Oh, I’m not here to wallow,” John started to rise. “I’m here to fix it.”

Realizing what she meant, Zari called out. “Wait, John…”

The girl didn’t listen or hesitate to go up and try to kick the man who would one day become her father, in his balls, but she suddenly was forced back by something invisible.

Startled, John struggled up, confused.

“Ball kick-paradox. You can’t kick your own dad in the junk because you’d erase yourself from this timeline, meaning there would be no one to kick your dad in the junk,” Zari explained. 

“Bloody hell I can’t!” John scowled, trying again. 

This time, her dad noticed.

“What the hell! You bitch, what did you just try to do to me!” the man shouted as John struggled to get back up from the floor. Once again, having been stopped by the timeline.   
Deciding to hell with it, she punched him in the face instead, needing to get at least one good hit in while she could. Her dad reeled, but punched back at the same time, both now sent tumbling. 

“Tommy! Tommy, are you alright?” John’s mother shouted, running to her lovers’ side. 

John struggled back to her feet. 

“Get the hell out of my pub!” Her mother snapped at John. “I never want to see your face around again!”

John hid the hurt from that remark as she grabbed her coat and scarf. 

“You won’t,” she bit out, stumbling outside with Zari quickly following behind. 

The two walked for a moment in silence until John collapsed onto a nearby park bench, her nose bleeding. Zari handed the girl a tissue as John fiddled with a cigarette.

“Another cracking Constantine family reunion,” John huffed dryly. 

“Look, I get it,” Zari started, “there are a lot of things I wish I could change too. But you can’t mess with your past. Time travel 101.”

John sighed, her eyes flaring unnoticed with an internal flame. 

“It’s not just my mom, Zari. There are others I’ve hurt, and my past…” she hesitated, thinking of the hellhound who had visited her at the apartment. “…it’s coming for me.”

Zari frowned, turning more towards her companion. “What do you mean?”

John scowled as the memories of her past bombarded her. Ignoring the question, John shook her head and snapped the lighter shut. 

“Nothing, it’s nothing. We should be getting back to others. Ray will be needing us by now, won’t he?”

Zari watched the girl walk away, wondering to herself how someone so young, could seem so disturbingly haunted. Enough so that she would try and commit what was essentially suicide, by assuring she was never born. 

*LEGENDS*

“Alright Ray, what are we dealing with?” Sara questioned just as John and Zari walked into the ship’s main hub.

“She’s a shapeshifter. She doesn’t kidnap the Queen. She becomes the Queen.”

“I knew it,” John joked.

Zari huffed. “You definitely said leprechaun,” she teased.

“So, I have an idea,” Ray continued. “What if I just ask her to stop impersonating the Queen? History goes back to the way it was, and we don’t have to send her to hell.”

“Ray, so far we’ve learned that unicorns are homicidal maniacs and fairy godmothers are psychopaths. And they are supposed to be the nice ones.”

“And these shapeshifting bastards, they put the rest to shame,” John agreed, “We are talking killing sprees, world wars, you name it.”

“Yeah, but she’s not doing any of that.”

“She’s manipulating you. Don’t fall for it mate.”

“Too late. He’s got a tattoo,” Mick sighed.

Sara gaped. 

“Oh please, let it be a tramp stamp,” Zari chuckled. 

Ray ignored them. “She’s not hurting anyone.”

“Sit tight haircut, we will work this out,” Mick told him confidently. 

Ray was surprised. 

“Thank you, Mick. Maybe we could…” 

Mick shut the comm off. “He’s in too deep.”

John nodded. “For once, I agree with you. Ray has no bloody idea what he’s dealing with.”

“Ray has been doing this a long time,” Sara defended him, “he can handle himself.”

“Sara, if this thing gets loose,” John urged her to see the possibilities, “there is no stopping it. Trust me.”

Sara turned to Zari. “What do you think? Has the shapeshifter gotten to Ray?”

Zari frowned, looking away. An answer in itself. 

Sara sighed. “Yeah. Alright then, squad save the Queen.”

*LEGENDS*

Zari, John, Sara, and Mick started towards the hideout where Ray and the shapeshifter were located. They had no idea that Ray saw them from afar and had decided to intervene. 

Zari and John went one way, while Mick and Sara went the other. As John and Zari walked the halls, they saw no signs of Ray or their shapeshifter. 

“No signs of either one here, Captain,” Zari reported. “Sara? Sara?”

John hummed. “Maybe you should have put a tracker in her comm.”

Zari sighed, knowing the sorceress would never let them live that down. 

John barely heard the sound of a laser starting up just in time, before she had to duck down, drawing Zari with her behind a nearby cabinet.

“What the hell, Ray?!” Zari shouted.

John patted Zari and pointed towards the door. With a quick nod from her companion, the two quickly sped through, staying low. 

From in another room, Ray groaned as he came to. The shapeshifter having knocked him and stolen his suit. 

“Sara?” he called to her. “Charlie decked me… oh no.”

Ray realized his armor was gone. Hurrying out of the room, he gasped to see both Sara and Mick unconscious on the floor. Hearing the blast of his laser shooter, he knew the shapeshifter, Charlie, had now gone after John and Zari. 

Ray hurried into the next room after them and looked on as the shapeshifter miniaturized the cabinet the two were hiding behind. As John and Zari darted behind the next piece of large furniture to hide, Ray stepped out to shield them. 

“Stop, don’t hurt my friends.”

“Your friends are drones,” the shapeshifter snapped.

“No,” Ray disagreed, “they are better than that.”

“I’m not taking the chance. No way am I going back to prison.”

“Atom suit disassemble!” Ray quickly spoke.

“Dr. Palmer voice authenticated,” the suit replied as it slipped completely off the shifters body that looked identical to Ray himself. 

The shifter scowled. 

“Guess you’re a drone too,” she replied as she switched back to her usual form. 

Sara huffed as she came into the room. “That’s enough out of you. Zari?”

Zari used her wind magic to pin the shifter to the wall so she couldn’t move.

John stepped forward. 

“Great, now let’s send this beast to hell.”

Ray’s eyes widened. “Wait…”

“Hell?” The shifter gaped, “What the hell?”

“Guys, look, come on, let’s think about this, alright?” Ray started, “she is not evil.”

“She stole your suit and tried to kill us, Ray,” Sara argued.

“That’s the ballsiest thing you’ve ever done, haircut,” Mick added.

“She’s only doing what any one of you would have done if you were cornered,” Ray argued.

“We let her out, this is on us,” Sara told him plainly. 

At that moment, John finished casting her incantation, having taken her time to hear what was being said.

“The portal is open, now send the monster through.”

The shifter scowled. 

“I’ll show you people what a real monster looks like!”

“Like this,” she said as she turned into Sara.

“Like someone who’d rather do what’s easy…” she continued as she turned into Mick.

“Then figure out what’s right,” she finished as Zari. 

“Someone who would send an innocent to hell,” she finished, looking at John. 

John felt the sting of those words. The shifters statement far truer than she probably even realized. 

“Don’t fall for it’s bloody parlor tricks,” John reminded them, though her words were a bit lacking in complete conviction now after that shakeup. 

“Ray said your team’s moral compass is missing.” The shifter turned from John to Amiya. 

Everyone stared in shock, horrified.

“Can you send her to hell?” she asked them as Amiya. 

“Zari, your too smart to fall for this bloody creature,” John spoke, “now send it through, I can’t keep the portal open forever.”

Zari and the others hesitated. 

“No…” she finally whispered, “I can’t. I can’t do it.”

John sighed, collapsing the portal. 

“Alright, we’re going to figure this out on the ship,” Sara barked.

“Fine,” John agreed, “but I’m not letting a bloody shapeshifter on the ship.”

Chanting, he pinned Charlie with his own magic. She groaned and winced in pain before suddenly, her body lit up with a strange light that caused her to gasp, and then she dropped free.

“What did you just do to me, you ass?” She asked, a bit shakily. 

“It’s like a lobotomy of sorts,” John smirked. “Your shapeshifting days are over, sweetheart.”

“NO!” The creature shouted. 

John walked away, letting the team deal with their new ‘guest’.

*LEGENDS*

The crew stood around the hub, watching the shifter who looked like Amiya fight against the forcefield of the holding cell.

“We can’t just leave her locked in there forever,” Ray started.

“You are on thin ice concerning what we can and cannot do, mister,” Sara told him. “Those punks were a bad influence on you.”

“Oh, well, maybe you just don’t know as much about me as you think you do,” he argued. 

Sara turned to him.

“You were an eagle scout, former CEO of Palmer Tech, your favorite musical is ‘singing in the rain’, your allergic to cats and to Grodd, and you were knighted by Queen Guinevere Sir Raymond of the Palms.”

“Okay,” he admitted, “So you know a lot. But what you don’t know about me is that I helped Nora Dahrk escape the time bureau!”

Zari was impressed he admitted it. 

Sara gaped and Mick smirked. 

“You what?” Sara questioned. 

“She’s not going to sleep with you, haircut,” Mick replied, amused.

“That is not why I did it,” Ray argued. 

Zari hummed, doubtful. 

“I just… I believe she can be a better person. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe she’s a terrible, horrible monster, but I believe she should be given the chance to find out. Everyone else on this ship has been given a second chance, why doesn’t she get one?”

Sara sighed. “Look, you better not be wrong about her, but right now we need to deal with our current captive. She cannot stay on the ship.”

“Yeah,” Zari agreed, “especially with Amiya’s face. It’s freaking creepy.”

Mick turned to John who was sitting off to the side on the staircase, having been silent this entire time. 

“You broke her, you fix her, weasel. Make her not Amiya again.”

John wrinkled her nose in distaste. 

“The spell doesn’t work like that, womble. I took away her power to transform. It’s like clipping an angel’s wings. You can’t exactly unclip them,” John explained, taking another drink of whiskey. 

*LEGENDS*

John continued to sit on the steps long after the others had already left the room. All except Zari. 

“Hey, got a minute?”

John sighed, not exactly fond of any of the team right now.

“Look, I… I just wanted to say about the pub…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,” John interrupted her, “listen if you are here to have some weepy, heart-to-heart, end-of-the-mission hug fest, where you tell me that my problems are your problems and that happiness is just one friend away and all that crap, don’t bother yeah?”

Zari frowned, guessing she had been told that before.

“Hey… you don’t know me,” Zari replied. “I wouldn’t do that. That would be lame.”

John chuckled, somewhat amused by her response. “Yeah, it would. So why are you here?”

Zari studied the girl before her for a moment, before reaching into her back pocket for the photo. 

“I wanted to give you this surveillance picture I took of you and your mom.”

John hesitated, before reaching for it. The picture showed a clear shot of a smiling John and her beautiful smiling mother. 

“I realize,” Zari continued, “That none of us really know much about you either. I want that to change, and I’m sorry we haven’t given you the opportunity.”

John sighed, studying the photo for another few seconds in silence. 

“Thank you…” John hesitated, before realizing she rarely thanked anyone for anything. “You know, for not doing… that mushy stuff.”

“Yeah, anytime,” Zari smiled, hearing the true words of gratitude behind the girl’s rambles.

John cleared her throat, nodding, as Zari walked away. As soon as the other was gone, John took another long look at the photograph. Her mother.  
John could only smile to herself.


	8. Good Ish

John stepped into the control area where only Ray stood waiting after they had been called to discuss a new mission. 

“Morning, Raymundo,” John commented tiredly. 

“Good morning, John,” Ray greeted with his usual dopey smile. 

About that time, the doors opened, and Adam Sharpe walked through. 

“Legends,” he greeted the two with a nod. 

“Oh, Director Sharpe. Joining us, are we?” John grinned.

“Is that a problem?” Adam asked the girl, eyes narrowed.

“Not for me, handsome,” John leered. 

“Good,” Sara interrupted, “because we are headed back to the 1990’s to infiltrate a place called Camp Ogawa.”

“Oh, sneaking into a military facility, are we?” John asked.

“Actually, it’s a summer camp for kids,” Sara smiled. 

“Oh, I love summer camp!” Ray exclaimed, “Everyone used to call me kid counselor.”

John snorted. 

“Bet you took that as a compliment too, didn’t you mate?” 

“Well because of my leadership skills, obviously,” Ray nodded.

Everyone hummed and cast their eyes away.

Ray’s own eyes grew wide. “Right, that’s why?”

“Yeah, mm-hmm,” Sarah muttered, nodding along.

John decided it might be best to change the subject. 

“So uh, any idea what kind of foul beast we are up against, then?”

“Well based on…” Adam hesitated, “research…,” he decided to say, “that Sara and I have been doing. We believe we could be looking at a swampy monster thing.”

John and Ray’s eyes widened. 

“According to the timeline,” Sara explained, “before the end of summer, several kids went missing never to be seen again.”

“Well I happen to know a swamp thing,” John commented, “but then again, Maine is way too far North for that Muppet.”

Sara was intrigued, but Ray continued with the conversation before she could ask.

“Well, we used to use the buddy system to make sure everyone was safe, and…” Ray let out a dejected sigh. “this is when Nate would say ‘I’m your buddy’, and we’d do a first bump or a silly jig-…”

Everyone tried not to show their thoughts, as amused as they were by poor Ray. 

“Well we are shorthanded,” Sara spoke cheerfully, “so I need you to partner up with Adam and…”

“Wait, I thought I was going to be with you?” Adam questioned, suddenly.

“Well, you are, but you’re a guy. They won’t place you with me in a girl’s bunk house.”

“I might have a solution,” John spoke up. You and me Sharpie, I can change our genders temporarily.”

“Your going to make me into a girl?” Adam gaped.

Sara and Ray looked intrigued. 

“And me into a guy, yes. I will work with Ray, and you and Sara can be together.”

“I…” Adam hesitated before looking at Sara. “I guess that’s fine.”

Ray looked uncertain and John noticed.

“Oh, don’t worry dreamboat, I’ve had stranger bed fellows than you.”

Ray blushed as John continued talking. 

“Just remember, I’m not one to get all gussied up for a gig, alright?”

Camp Ogawa, Maine, 1995

The now very male John Constantine stood fuming. They had taken his coat and forced him into this ridiculous costume they called a camp counselor uniform. 

Beside him, Ray was still having trouble accepting that the older man standing here who looked to be in his mid-thirties was actually his arrogant, wise cracking, twenty-two-year-old female sorceress companion. 

Even Sara and Adam, now temporarily named Ava, were having trouble adjusting more to John’s change in appearance than Adam’s own. Adam still looked like Adam at least, just… female. John however had truly changed in a multitude of ways. She looked older, rougher, and a little more badass. She also was pretty hot, even as a guy. 

“Look at it this way, at least you didn’t have to change your name, right?” Ray tried. 

John just ignored him. 

“You may take my coat and my scarf, but you can’t take my dignity,” the newly turned man, scowled. 

“That’s the camp spirit,” Sara joked.

John ignored her, his sunglasses covering the flame he was trying to push down in his eyes. He probably should be worried. It was happening more and more often lately, him losing control, but for some reason, he felt calm about the whole thing. Perhaps that in and of itself should be a concern.

“Are these outfits really necessary?” Adam, now Ava, also questioned, not at all pleased by what she was wearing. 

“Girl…” Sara whistled teasingly. 

Ava blushed, feeling very self-conscious concerning the two larger in size breasts that she was now sporting. 

“Come on guys, Gideon made these clothes for us,” Ray explained, thinking that made it so much cooler. “They are the official Camp Ogawa counselor uniforms, using archival photos so that we could fit in.”

“What are you guys doing just standing around for?” a voice cut in with a shout.

All four turned to see an older stern looking woman standing coming at them, also dressed in the uniform. 

“Hi, we are the new camp counselors,” Sara greeted, “sorry to show up unannounced.”

“Well freckles,” the woman began, “My name is Paula Cooper. I’m the director here. Welcome to Camp Ogawa. My right-hand man, Chad Stephens, will show you around. Chad! Get over here.”

The four flinched at her loud shout as a young, handsome looking man dashed over.

“What’s up?” he questioned with a smile.

“Chad, you marble cut of prime beef, give these new counselors the tour.”

“Cool, all right. Hey, let’s bounce over this way,” he grinned, gesturing to the right. “I’ll give you the 411 on this place, huh? Yeah.”

John scowled. He really hated summer camps. 

“What we need are snipers on that ridgeline, spotters on the ground, and an exfil site for when we bag the creature.”

John nodded along in agreement as he walked side by side with the recently turned Ava. 

“That’s not a bad plan, Sharpie. I’ll put a protection spell around the perimeter to keep out the nasties.”

Ava smiled. “Best offence is a strong defense.”

The two shared a look of mutual understanding, a hint of a ‘I respect your work’ smile, upon their faces. For once, completely on the same page. 

“So, as you guys can see,” Chad commented as they drew to a stop after touring the camp, “Camp Ogawa is a miserable place. Paula runs it like a POW camp… NOT!”

He laughed, causing Ray to laugh along with him.

Sara groaned. “Not the 90’s ‘not’ jokes.”

“It’s like comic comfort food,” Ray grinned.

Sara huffed a laugh at that description. 

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but admire your lanyard,” Chad interrupted Ray. “Did you make that yourself?”

“Oh yeah, thank you. Yeah, along with 21 required merit badges, I also went on to get certification in nuclear science and dentistry.”

“Oh snap! I’ve got some serious competition for coolest counselor this summer, huh?”

The two chuckled as Chad turned to Sara.

“What about you? You got any special skills?”

“Martial arts.”

“Hwah!” Chad broke into a martial art pose with a laugh. “Sorry, it’s just so fresh. It’s like Jackie Chan, you know?”

He took a moment to catch his breath. Sara looked very unamused by the entire thing. 

“I prefer knives and swords,” she stated dryly. 

“Right, yeah, point taken.”

He broke into laugher again at his own joke. Ray laughing along with him. Sara just sighed. 

“Anyways, let’s head over here, alright? I’m going to assign you to your cabins. It’s going to be a heck of a summer.”

“Okay,” Ray acknowledge, waiting until the man walked away before turning to Sara. “He’ll grow on you.”

Sara, John, and Ava were entirely doubtful as they followed from further behind. 

*LEGENDS*

“Good morning members of Newton Cabin. I am counselor Ray and the mysterious gentleman in the back is Counselor John.”

John looked up from his drinking when he realized all the kids were looking back at him.

“Cheers lads,” he spoke with the lift of his tin.

“Well today’s subject is wilderness survival, which includes tracking and orienteering. Who is excited?”

None of the kids moved a muscle. Ray kept his smile.

“Well, you will be, okay? Two words to remember when tracking. Displacement, and direction. Now, counselor John will demonstrate the kind of inadvertent markers people leave behind while walking through the woods. And…” Ray looked up, only to frown when he realized John was no longer there. 

All the kids looked back as well. “Counselor John is missing already. See how easy it is to get lost in the woods, gentlemen?”

John had better things to do then help coach a group of children. He and children… they just weren’t a great mix. If Adam felt awkward having not had a childhood, John could relate in a way, as her own had been filled with abuse and various horrors of the like. 

John was so focused on making the salt outline around the camp, still lost in thought, that he didn’t notice the boy coming up behind him and ran smack into the kid. Flinching, John twirled around, letting out a deep breath when he realized it was only a child.

“What are you doing?” the boy asked curiously.

“Oh, I’m creating a protective barrier to catch monsters.”

“Monsters?” the boy asked.

“Yeah. You know, the kind that slice into your stomach and eat your intestines for supper.”

The boy stared wide eyed as John continued with his salt line, completely oblivious to the fear he had just instilled in the child next to him, as John had been completely serious. 

*LEGENDS*

John couldn’t sleep that night in their cabin. He sat awake, watching Ray and the boys sleep for a long moment before finally deciding he’d had enough. Getting up, he stepped outside and started towards the trees to check the perimeter. He stopped when he heard the snap of a tree branch. He was relieved when all he saw was a wily fox that quickly darted away.

Making certain that no one was around first; John allowed the glamour spell to drop and her true form to return. With the glamour spell being released, so did the glamour spell drop that had covered the scars she had hid. Scars burned into her, cut into her, and chewed into her throughout the years. Stripping of her clothes, she decided a dip in the lake might be relaxing. She hadn’t skinny dipped in ages, but it sounded fun. It sounded like something someone her age might actually do. 

With a sigh of relief, she slipped into the water, enjoying the way it swirled around her form. She knew what Sharpie and Sara had said about a swamp creature, but John knew a swamp thing and knew the signs. There was nothing in this water. Nothing magical anyways. 

With the moonlight brightly lit overhead, she didn’t notice that Sara had come to investigate the sound of splashing, and when she stepped out of the water, she found herself face to face with Sara whose eyes were tracing her body, not with lust or any form of desire, but with horror.

“John…”

John snapped her fingers and the glamour returned, hiding the marks, and altering her body back into the form of a man. 

Stepping past Sara, he grabbed his clothes, but a hand on his arm stopped him.

“John…”

“It’s nothing, love. Merely the past,” he told her.

Sara didn’t say anymore as John got dressed and walked away, returning to his cabin to secretly drink the night away, but she knew what she had seen. While many of those marks were old, not all of them were. Was it simply part of the rituals of magic or was there more to it than that?

*LEGENDS*

The following morning, the bugle was played, waking up the other kids and any counselors who had overslept. 

“Beautiful morning,” Ray commented, pleased, as he took in a deep breath of fresh air.

“Yeah, sorry to burst your summer-loving bubble, mate,” John began, walking up to him, “but we are missing one of our young charges.”

Ray frowned, his nose wrinkling. “Are you sure you counted right? Because based on your whiskey cologne, I think you’re still drunk.”

“No, she’s right,” Sara said, stepping up beside John on his other side.

John didn’t look at Sara as she glanced his way. 

“Yeah,” confirmed Ava, “a girl in our cabin is missing too, even after I put the fear of God into them.”

The four walked to the perimeter and John scowled when he saw the line was broken. 

“Obviously, there’s something wrong with Constantine’s booby trap,” Ray began.

“Are you off your trolley mate?” John scoffed, “My spell was designed to keep the monsters from getting in, not children getting out.”

“They must have snuck out in the middle of the night, after we returned to bed,” Sara commented.

“We?” Ava questioned.

Ray looked between John and Sara, neither of whom would look at each other.

“Why would they sneak out?” Ray pressed, knowing this would probably become quite the argument if he allowed the path of this conversation to continue.

“To make out,” Sara said with a ‘duh’ tone of voice.

“Well I suppose we should notify the camp director,” Ray sighed.

As Sara and Ray walked towards the director, he couldn’t help but ask.

“Is everything okay between you and John?”

“Yeah, why?” Sara asked, a little too quickly.

“No reason,” Ray said, knowing that the way she had answered, told him he would get absolutely nothing else out of her. 

*LEGENDS*

“Alright kids, breath in and out. That’s good,” Ray smiled as he sat in a circle with the members of his cabin. “A circle of trust creates a safe space for us to share our secrets without judgement.”

John groaned from behind Ray, bored out of his mind.

“Now kids,” Ray continued, “take each other’s hands. Now, I want you to-…”

“Yeah, sorry to butt in, lads,” John interrupted, not sorry in the least. “But uh,” he looked at Ray. “can I have a word with you for a second?”

Ray grinned at his friend, but it died once John turned away, causing him to sigh in half-hearted annoyance. 

“Okay, I want you to meditate on the word ‘openness’, and I will be right back.”

The kids looked confused as heck about what Ray had just asked of them, as he stood up and turned to John.

“You are interrupt-…” he cleared his throat, knowing it wouldn’t be a good idea to address Constantine with a snappish tone. “You are interrupting the flow.”

“Oh yeah, well, apologies to you and your flow, but all of your psychobabble, that ain’t gonna cut the mustard with the young ones, mate. Let me show you how it’s done.”

Ray shrugged, deciding to just let it play out and see what happens.

“Alright then, which one of you whippersnappers, wants to be… hypnotized?” He grinned, dropping a long-chained pocket watch from his hands. 

The kids all jumped up and down in excitement, each one wanting to be picked as John smirked and Ray admitted defeat from the sideline. 

*LEGENDS*

Sara was sitting on the picnic table alone at the front of the camp when John walked up to her.

“So, how many girls has the missus made cry so far, or have you lost count?” She teased.

Sara sighed in agreement, ignoring the others grin.

“Adam’s interrogation techniques aren’t going to work with them. They would rather take their stories and secrets to their graves then squeal.” She turned to her companion more fully. “Anything with the boys?”

“Oh, those boys aren’t hiding anything. They are open books, if those books were written by hapless fools, that is.”

“If I could just become one of them, another 12-year-old camper, I could get these girls to talk like that,” Sara said. snapping her fingers and beyond confident in her own words.   
John smirked. 

“I do believe you have just sparked an idea there, Ms. Lance.”

Sara gave a sly smile as the two shared a companionable moment, that is, up until Ava stormed towards them. 

“Okay, I made an additional list of suspects to question,” she began. 

“Adam…”

John slipped away while the two were distracted. 

“Look Sara, I know that you just want them to have fun, alright? But the fact of the matter is, there is a monster out there hunting down these kids, and these girls are stonewalling us, okay?”

“Counselor Ava?”

The two turned to see one of their girls from their cabin standing before them, a worried look upon her face. 

“Yes?” Ava started gently. 

“I’m ready to tell you what’s really going on.”

Ava sent a ‘see, it worked’ look towards Sara before turning back to the girl. 

“Go on honey, spill the beans,” Ava encouraged the child.

“It won’t stop unless you do something,” the girl began.

“What won’t stop?” Sara questioned.

“The monster that lives under the dock. The lake beast.”

“Who’s the lake beast?” Ava asked, confused. First time she had heard of it. 

“Years ago,” the girl began her story, “at this very camp in fact, some means kids played a prank on a boy and he drowned in the lake. And now every year he returns to get his revenge.”

“And so, you think the lake beast took your friends?” Ava summarized. 

The girl nodded, her breathing shaky.

Sara frowned, not fully convinced, but Adam was captivated by the tale. 

“They say the only way to make him appear is to go to the dock alone and call his name three times.”  
Ava smiled gently at the girl. 

“Sweetie you are so brave. I promise you, the lake beast won’t be getting anyone else tonight, okay?”

The girl nodded and ran off as Adam turned back to Sara. Neither said a word, but both knew, truth or not, they had to check it out for themselves. 

*LEGENDS*

That night, Ava walked out onto the dock with a flashlight alone. 

From the trees, Sara, John, and Ray knelt watching. 

“I’m telling you; I was out there last night, Sara. Nothing is in that lake,” John argued. 

“I’m not saying your wrong, but we need to at least check it out,” Sara defended. 

“Guys. Guys!” Ray called with his binoculars, silencing them. “I think I see a Northern Saw-whet Owl!”

“Ray, focus!” Sara reprimanded.

Ray sighed in disappointment. “Fine, I will save it for my bird watching journal.”

He turned the binoculars back onto Ava. 

“Okay, you’re in the clear so far, Adam.”

A bird shooting out from under the dock startled Adam who took a deep breath, calming himself down. 

“Stupid bird,” Ava sighed, as she turned back around and continued further down the pier. 

Suddenly, Ava stopped, her eyes drawn to the water. With her flashlight, she shined it around, trying to see if anything looked amiss. 

“Well let’s just get this over with,” Adam sighed, “Lake beast, Lake beast, Lake beast.”

Nothing happened and Adam frowned. “This feels like a bust to me.”

Suddenly, a strange movement drew her attention to the water. Peering in by leaning forward, something suddenly emerged, startling her. Just below her feet, a rope was pulled tight by a group of giggling girls from the opposite tree line. The action sending Ava spiraling into the water headfirst. 

The girls began laughing, but quickly fled when the other counselors came running. 

“Ah, it was just a bloody prank,” John sighed both in disappointment and relief. 

Sara helped Adam back onto the dock. The other completely soaked through. 

“You okay?”

“Nice night for a swim though, eh, Sharpie?” John teased.

Ava glared. 

“Those girls are monsters!” she shouted, angrily. 

*LEGENDS*

“After we left the lake last night, another camper went missing,” Ray sighed as he informed Sara of this news the following morning. 

“One of ours too,” Sara nodded. 

“That makes four in total,” Ray frowned. 

“They must have snuck out to meet up with each other and never made it back.”

“Yell, well I don’t know about you lot, but I’m not just sitting around here waiting for the monster to go and get another kid,” John argued.

Adam nodded. “We better split up.”

“Alright. Ray, John, you two check the woods for the missing kids. Ava and I will keep watch here.”

John nodded and started out. Ray hurried to catch up.

As Sara contemplated bringing up her idea about infiltrating the kids with Adam, John and Ray were already far into the woods several minutes later.

“How are we going to find the kids with that dangly thing?” Ray asked, pointing at the glowing necklace. 

“You know,” John ignored him, “this ritual usually works best when someone isn’t yammering in my ear hole.”

“Well if you want to find the kids, we need to do it the old-fashioned way,” Ray started, “study their tracks. It’s a good thing I came prepared, because one step in the wrong direction here, and you will be traveling for miles in the wrong-…”

“Dang it, you nandy pandy!” John snapped, dropping his spell. “I said I need silence.”

“Oh, you meant right now. I’m sorry, I thought you meant…”

Ray watched in stunned disbelief as John grabbed Ray’s compass out of his hand and threw it as far into the woods as possible. 

“Why are you being such a jerk?” Ray asked, turning to the other in confusion. 

“Because you shouldn’t even be out here chasing a magical creature, alright? It’s too dangerous.”

“Too dangerous?” Ray frowned, scoffing. “You are the one who is lucky your out here with me, because I can keep us alive on bugs and berries alone.”

“You know Ray, this has nothing to do with survival in the wild and everything to do with surviving magical creatures and those who dabble in the dark arts.”

“I will have you know; I am no stranger to the world of magic.”

“Yeah,” John laughed dryly, “talking about Nora Dahrk, are we? Don’t think I haven’t heard how she had you eating out of the palm of her wicked little hand. Oh, I bet she didn’t even have to ask for the time stone, did she? No, you just gave it away like biscuits at teatime.”

“Nora and I have a mutual respect. It’s not like I was tripping over myself to-…”

Ray was startled when he actually did trip. His feet nearly sliding out from under him. 

The two turned, stunned by what they had just found.

“What is that?” Ray whispered, disgusted.

“No doubt left behind by the magical beast.”

“Who sheds its skin after it eats kids?” Ray asked horrified. “What are we looking for? Some sort of snake monster?”

“Well the answer is in this book,” John said, pulling the small grimoire of magical beasts from his coat pocket. 

Ray’s eyes widened. “Is that a magical Audubon guide?” He grabbed it from John as the sorceress stared at the other with annoyance. 

Taking the book back, John flipped through it. “Here, I think this is it.”

Ray clicked on his comm. 

“Guys, I think we have ID’d our monster. Constantine and I found a skin suit shed by something called a shtriga.”

“Come again?” Sara asked.

“A shtriga,” john repeated, “It’s a vampiric witch that feeds off the life force of children. Bloody brilliant setting up shop at summer camp.”

“There is some good news, sort of. Uh it says here that the Shtriga feeds slowly off its prey, draining its life force over the course of a couple days.” Ray read out loud. “Which means the kids missing, could still be alive?”

“Then it’s on you guys to find them,” Sara confirmed. 

“Alright, let’s go,” John took off. Ray hurrying to catch up after getting turned around. 

*LEGENDS*

It was late at night. Ray and John were still walking the length of the forest. John having now returned to her female form, stating it was more comfortable to move in, when the comm clicked on.

“Hey, you guys still out there? It’s Sara.”

John blinked at the obvious change of her voice. 

“Sara? The potion actually worked?” John asked, completely serious. 

Sara scowled. “You didn’t know if it was going to work when you gave us the potion?”

“Well of course I didn’t,” John replied, “I’ve never tested it on humans before, have I?”

“Dang it, John.”

“Well, just see it like this… you two have now turned yourself into irresistible shtriga bait.”

“So, any suggestions on how a couple of kids can take on a magical child-eating hag?”

“Well, if you’re in a pinch, you can always try capsicum annuum, more commonly known as cayenne pepper. Witches hate the stuff. But you will be fine, cheers love.”

John clicked the comm off before Sara could comment. 

“The shtriga’s laid can’t be far now.”

“Look there!” Ray shouted, pointing. 

Ray pointed his flashlight where a small piece of camper cloth could be seen hanging on a branch. “A camper must have tried to hide from the shtriga here.”

John quickly grabbed a knife and sliced her finger before grabbing for her lighter. 

“What are you doing? A spell?”

“Yup,” John confirmed. 

Quickly, she began to chant before she took the piece of cloth and set it on fire, tossing it into the air. To Ray’s surprise and fascination, it became a spiraling ball of orange flaming light. 

“This is a will-o the wisp. This little bugger will lead us to whoever owns that shirt.” John smiled at Ray before turning back to the ball of light. “Well go on then, light the way.”

Quickly, the ball of light as though understanding his words, hurried to do as he commanded. Ray wondered if it did actually understand. 

He chuckled. “Look at us, a pair of magical detectives.”

John groaned. “And I was beginning to think you were alright until you went and said that.”

Ray sighed. 

“You know there are other dabblers of the dark arts out there who think that I’m alright.”

“Referring to Nora Dahrk, are we?”

Ray shrugged in admittance.

“Best to stay away from that witch, mate. Not even your big heart can keep you safe from someone who’s wrestled with literal demons.”

Ray scoffed. 

“What about you? You’re one of us now. You even dressed up for a little while. You’ve wrestled with demons, and you’re good… ish.”

“Just listen okay!” John snapped, turning on her companion. “You know, I had a friend like you. Someone good, someone who trusted me. Be smarter than him, okay? Save yourself Ray Palmer, because people like me and Nora Dahrk, we’re bloody hell for people like you.”

Ray frowned, not convinced, but unsure of what to say in rebuttal. 

“There it is,” John pointed, that must be it.

Ray gulped, already flashing through all the horror movies he had seen or heard of as they stepped inside. 

“I’ve seen enough horror movie trailers to know this won’t end well.”

The two stared at the four covered box-shapes, hesitant to pull the blankets back and find the truth concerning the children within their confines. 

“Those films are nothing compared to the horrors you may see in real life,” John sighed, taking the first step. 

Quickly, she grabbed the blanket furthest to the right and yanked it off, revealing the first child, unmoving. Frowning, John quickly tore off the next three. 

While studying the children, the girl in the far-left cage suddenly jumped awake, only to fall unconscious again. 

It startled them both. The two taking breaths to calm their breathing. 

“Are we too late?” Ray whispered.

John quickly threw off her coat as she paced the floor. “We will need an incantation, a crystal, and a conduit to draw the pilfered life force from the shtriga and back into their bodies. Now just uh, follow my lead and do everything I say.”

Ray nodded as John got to work. 

After several minutes and a quick read through of what he would be chanting, Ray stood uncomfortably in the center of the room, a blue crystal in his hands. John sat on the floor next to him. She would be acting as the conduit in this ritual and for once, not the one casting the spell. After all, anyone can say the words, but not just anyone can control a life force, let alone more than one at a time. It would take everything she had and more to get this right. And she had to. She can’t lose these kids. 

“Are you ready, big man?”

Ray shrugged, silent. In all honesty, he couldn’t not be ready. Time was of the essence.

“On with the show then,” John smiled before closing her eyes and focusing in on her meditative position and power. 

With a clear voice, Ray began to chant in Latin. His words were slow and precise, just as John said he should say them. The crystal within his hands, began to glow, and far away, the shtriga felt its entire life force being ripped from its body, thereby decimating its outer attractive appearance. 

John, in complete control of the force, raised her hands and manipulated the energy, directing it at the kids. Ray could only stand back and watch as the sorceress put her everything into the spell. He could tell just from looking at her, that this wasn’t simple. It was hurting John, but she was doing it. It was working. 

As the last of the force entered the kid’s bodies, Ray could only laugh in relief as the kids began to blink awake. 

“It worked!”

John groaned, smiling to herself as she stood, nearly stumbling a bit due to the excess energy she had spent during this show of power. 

“That was worse than a hangover,” she groaned good naturedly, and Ray laughed alongside her. 

The two studied the kids before John’s eyes were drawn to the boy furthest on the right. A boy, who unlike the others, showed no sign of life. 

“Oh no…” John hurried forward. “No, no, come on son. Come on! Damn!” she shouted, spinning in a circle as she paced the floor, her eyes locked on the child. 

Ray stood there, feeling extremely useless. What could be done?

Suddenly, John shook her head. “No, I refuse to lose another child.”

With those words, she knelt before the boy and began to chant an old and powerful Latin spell. 

Ray who was watching from behind didn’t understand what John was trying to do, but he hoped whatever it was would work to save the kid. 

With a groan, John closed her eyes and Ray stepped forward, concerned, when a strange light began to fill the sorceress’ face.

“John? What are you doing?”

John couldn’t even hear Ray. Her entire being was centered on the child and her will to save him. With control that could only belong to a Master level practitioner, John pulled the life force of herself out and began to share it with the boy sitting unmoving before her. As the force flowed out, her body swayed, growing weaker and weaker. Finally, when the boy took a breath, John cut the connection, leaving just enough juice in herself to stay alive, at least temporarily.

With a weak groan, she collapsed to the floor, unconscious. 

“John! John!” Ray hurried to her side, his concern rising. “John!”

It was very unlike the sorceress to be down for so long. “John, come on! John!”

Finally, the sorceress groaned, and Ray breathed a sigh of relief. 

“What happened?” she whispered, confused.

“You saved him. You saved Randall.”

John sighed, relieved it had worked. “That’s good.”

She collapsed back, eyes drifting closed, exhausted. Ray frowned, still concerned by her suddenly waxy looking appearance and lack of energy. 

“Just rest,” he told her with a gentle pat upon her arm. “I’ll get you back to the ship. I just… I’m not sure how I’m going to get the rest of you out of here,” he muttered to himself, looking at the kids.

“We found you guys!” A familiar young voice cut in, as several campers from Ray and John’s cabin rushed inside. “We got worried when you didn’t show up for dinner. Those kids look famished. Get them water and electrolytes, stat.”

Ray gaped.

“And that gurney we just made out of rope and wood, bring it in. Had a hunch it would come in handy.”

“How did you find us?” Ray asked, still stunned. 

The boy grinned proudly. “Displacement and direction, just like you taught us!”

Ray laughed. “Good job, Toby!” He cheered. 

He gave the boy a high five before looking at John and pointing at the kids. “See?”

John just rolled her eyes but couldn’t help the soft laugh that escaped her. 

My goodness, what was she going to do with these new companions of hers? 

*LEGENDS*

John groaned as Ray sat her down in the medical bay chair. Standing beside her, Sara studied the sorceress with a frown. It was obvious something was very wrong.   
“Ms. Constantine’s body is rejecting my treatments. Her odds of survival are bleak.”

“John, what you did out there was pretty selfless,” Ray stated proudly, praising the sorceress. “I told you that you were good.”

John ignored him, trying to light a cigarette despite the weakness she felt pressing down upon her body. 

“That’s not good for you,” he snapped, grabbing the cigarette from her lips.

John sighed and Sara frowned. 

“Get some rest John,” she told her friend gently. “Gideon, give her the good stuff.”

“Oh, Gideon,” John groaned in appreciation as the sedative took hold, “That’s nice love. We should party…”

Sara and Ray looked on in concern. 

“She’s getting worse. It wasn’t this bad originally in the woods. The magic she used to save that camper was pretty powerful.”

“Well if magic is what has her at death’s door, then maybe magic can save her.”

Ray nodded, hesitant. “I think I know someone who can help, but you probably won’t like it, and I have no idea how to find her.”


	9. You have the Choice

“There has to be another way to fix her,” Sara sighed. “Something Gideon missed.”

“John used magic to save those kids at camp. Magic’s the only thing that can fix her.”

“And you really think Nora Dahrk is the answer?”

“She’s the only witch I know besides John herself.”

“Can we even find her?” Sara questioned. 

“That is the problem,” Ray sighed, “She has a time stone. She could literally be anywhere or any-when. The bureau can’t even seem to find her.”

Sara hummed.

“When I was a kid, there was this one escaped con my dad was after and everyone assumed he had fled the country. You know where he found him? Not a block from the precinct.”

“You really think she’s hiding in the bureau’s own backyard?”

“Gideon, do a Nora Dahrk facial recognition scan of 2018.”

Sure enough, a photo appeared before them on the screen.

“That’s her,” Ray confirmed when Gideon brought up the potential match. “Great work, detective Lance.”

“Captain, our systems have identified the presence of a new fugitive. This one in 1951 Tokyo.”

“Alright,” Sara sighed, “let’s divide and conquer. I’ll take care of Tokyo; you go find our witch. Make her fix our sorceress.”

Ray nodded and headed out, sparing a single glance of concern for John before walking out the door. 

*LEGENDS*

John groaned as she came too. Her entire body felt heavy and hot and yet icy all the same. It was a miserable feeling. The sound of footsteps brought her to attention, and she groaned again, this time for a completely different reason, when she opened her eyes only to see Ray with Nora Dahrk at his side. 

“Nora Dahrk, what the blooming hell are you doing here, eh?”

Nora smiled at John, tipping her head at Ray. It was clear she was a bit uncomfortable being here as much as John was of seeing her again. 

“I owed this guy a favor,” she admitted.

John nodded, sending Nora a reassuring smile, but frowned when she looked at Ray. 

“She shouldn’t be here mate, I thought I warned you that-…” John couldn’t keep it up. Her energy was used up almost immediately to try and speak to them, and mid-sentence, she felt her body shut off, like a light switch being flipped. 

Ray stepped forward, worried. “Can you help her?”

Nora frowned, studying the young sorceress. She was just a girl, mostly a child still, yet so powerful. It reminded Nora of herself.

“I can try,” she told Ray before raising her hands and settling them over the girl’s rapidly weakening body. 

With a deep breath, Nora pulled from deep inside herself and sought out the power needed to scan the other’s body and figure out what’s wrong.

Ray stood by their side, not prepared to leave either of them. With Nora finally here and John in such a condition, he felt responsible to look after them. 

It was several minutes later that Nora finally allowed her power to tilter off; the red glow fading from her hands, leaving behind a woman who could only stare at the girl before her in frustration. 

“So?” Ray asked, “Can you save her?”

Nora sighed, shaking her head. “Life force is the most potent form of energy in the universe, and you’re like a battery about to run out of charge.”

Nora stared into the girl’s eyes as they opened and met her own. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

“Aye,” John nodded.

Nora stepped closer; her brows furrowed. “Then why? Why didn’t you say anything?”

John chuckled, the sound weak. “What? And push you off the wagon? Your clean Nora, it’s best we keep you that way.”

Nora and Ray both frowned. Ray in irritation. 

Grabbing Nora’s arm, he pulled her over to the side of the room so John could rest.

“You can recharge her, right?”

“Ray, you don’t want me to do that,” Nora sighed.

Ray blinked, stunned. “What? Yes, I do. If you don’t, she’ll die.”

“Ray!” Nora snapped.

Ray stared at her in surprise. 

“My power comes from my father. It’s in my blood. It’s always calling to me, wanting me to give in and be consumed, and I can’t. I can’t give in. I won’t.”

With that she walked away to think, leaving Ray feeling a mixture of emotions. 

His eyes lifted and took in the sickly form of the girl sleeping. Johnna Constantine, a twenty-two-year-old magical prodigy who was both as arrogant and rude as she was brilliant and kind. She had yet to bond much with the crew, but Ray knew deep down, John was good. She just needed to be shown that truth. She needed people who believed in her and with her. People who wouldn’t let her down when was the one needing help. So then was this it? Was this all he could do for her? After all she had done for them the past year, all they could do was watch her die after she gave her life to save an innocent child? 

Refusing to believe that, he hurried off to find Nora. 

Finally, after some basic searching, before just asking Gideon where she had gone, Ray stepped into a storage unit and there she sat upon a crate of luggage.

“Excellent hiding spot.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not hiding.”

Ray nodded, frowning. Nora sighed.

“My father sacrificed himself to give me a second chance. I don’t want to ruin it by backsliding into dark magic.”

“Does it have to be dark?”

Nora stood up. 

“John needs a magical transfusion, Ray. Normally, I would have to drain someone else’ life to save hers.”

“Well,” Ray suddenly smiled, “Life force is essentially energy, right?”

Nora raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

He grinned. 

“Then I have an idea.”

*LEGENDS*

Ray looked back at John and Nora as he worked on setting up the energy conductor. He was concerned about John. She was so weak and probably wouldn’t last very much longer.   
They needed to hurry. 

Nora was next to John, both keeping an eye on the girls vitals and working on connecting the energy conductor to the ships power supply nearest the chair in order to make the act more easily accessible, seeing as how John couldn’t exactly move right now. 

John was in and out of consciousness. Her skin was nearly white and hot to the touch. Her hair was soaked through with sweat and her eyes looked dark and bruised. As Nora worked, she was startled when John smiled in her sleep, a single name escaping her lips.

“Chas…”

Nora was just starting to connect pads to John’s stomach and chest when the girl suddenly flinched awake, her hands grabbing at Nora’s own. 

“Nora, don’t!” John begged.

Nora looked at the young girl, careful not to hurt her by pulling away. She could remember when this girl looked so much older to her. A fearless young woman trying to save a scared child who was trapped in an insane asylum due to demon possession. John had been her saving grace at that time, just knowing someone cared, and now… Nora could try and repay that favor. 

“Don’t talk,” she told the sorceress, “save your strength.”

John clutched her hand tighter though. Her strength surprising Nora. 

“Nora, listen to me, listen to me.”

Nora remained silent, waiting.

“As smart as Ray is, he doesn’t understand what you’re about to do. Choosing a life of magic, you’re either all in or you’re not. There are no half measures. And you and I both know it never leads to a happy ending.”

John purposefully grabbed for more of her hand and closed her eyes, forcefully sending her a mental image. 

Nora flinched as it came. The picture of a handsome man with dark brown eyes and shaggy brown hair filled her mind. He looked kind and pleasant with a warm smile. His eyes… intense and focused on who could only be John. 

“So, if you’re going to do this, Nora, don’t do it for Ray. Don’t do it for me. You do it for yourself, okay? It’s your choice. It’s your choice.”

John’s energy was spent, her body pulsing with pain as she felt darkness closing in, forcing her back into unconsciousness. Nora watched the other, tenderly placing the hand still clutched in her own back down on the medical bay chair. Her mind reeling. 

Finally, with all items in place and John fading in and out, Ray stepped up with a tablet and an energy cable in hand. He looked at John and then he looked at Nora.

“Are you ready?”

Nora looked back at John. The girl’s determination and words filtering through her mind. The image of the man she had shown Nora. All of it was there to convince her not to do this, and yet Nora knew what she had to do.

“Yes,” she stripped off her jacket, placing her hand on John and looking into her eyes. “I want to do this.”

John nodded. Not enough energy to say anything, as Nora looked to Ray and took the cable in hand. With a silent ‘good luck’ from Ray, he hit the button. 

Nora felt the energy course through her body, filling up her entire being. She focused in on that energy and her power, using herself as a conduit. Then with focus beyond her experience, she pushed that energy towards John. 

The sorceress gasped as the life force began to enter her body, the entire chair shaking with the shivers of power wracking the young girls frame until finally, the energy cut off and John was left gasping, wide eyed.

Nora immediately dropped the cable as Ray set the tablet down to the side. The two crowding around John. 

“Oh, what a rush,” John gasped again, her chest still heaving as she coughed. 

Nora looked down at her hands before looking up at Ray, a large grin spreading across both of their faces. John was alive and Nora had saved him using her power. 

*LEGENDS*

Ray was finishing cleaning up the area as Nora watched over John who was fixing the collar of her shirt and skirt. 

“How are you feeling?”

“Hunky dory, love,” the young sorceress smiled wide. “I feel like I have a new lease on life.”

Nora smiled back, pleased, though the real question she wished to ask was still sitting on the tip of her tongue. Watching John seem so joyful, she hated to ruin the moment, but she had to know. 

“How are you feeling?” John asked curiously. 

Nora was a bit surprised by the question. “Good. Yeah, I…” she nodded. “my whole life, I always believed my power was evil, and then my dad died, and I feared using it. But I saved you, and for the first time in my life, my magic doesn’t scare me.”

John smiled, relieved. “That’s good.”

John groaned, sitting up and reaching for her cigarette pack as Nora shuffled foot to foot nervously. 

“John?”

“Hmm?” she hummed in reply, a cigarette between her lips. 

“That man I saw…” John’s smile faded. “Who was he?”

John looked at Nora, her eyes sad, dark, and filled with layers of regret and self-loathing. Nora wanted to look away, but then John spoke.

“He’s the past,” she replied, but then paused as she stood up from the chair. “And… my future.”

Nora nodded, realizing that was as much as she was going to get, just as Ray walked back inside.

“Hooray,” John greeted with a smile. “Cheers big man, and now I am going to go and satiate my most wonderful habit. I’m going to have a smoke.”

She walked by Ray, not giving him a chance to stop her as he sputtered from behind. Smiling, John made her way through the hall, only to run into Sara and the others, newly returned from the job.

“John!”

Everyone was relieved to see her up and about, having heard she was injured on the last mission. None of them aware of just how serious the problem had truly been. 

“Greetings time travelers,” she teased in greeting, “I’m tired, so I will check in with you lovely folks later.”

With a quick wink and a tired grin, she hurried past them towards her room in the ship’s study.


	10. Getting to Know You

Never let it be said that John Constantine is normal. She has her own process for everything, and living on the ship doesn’t change that. So, while she was meditating and stretching while completing a ritual of cleansing, she wasn’t expecting the door to her room to suddenly open and for Nate and Nate’s dad to be the ones behind it. 

“The library is more my domain. I have a great collection of…” Nate tapered off when he caught sight of John, his eyes widening comically when he also realized she was completely naked. 

Luckily, John hadn’t removed her glamour spell that covered her scars, because right now, she was thankful they weren’t gawking at more than just her naked body. Never one to be shy, she merely smiled, whilst remaining hidden behind the desk from where she sat. 

“Good morning,” she greeted pleasantly with a wave. 

Nate quickly shut the door as Nate’s dad waved back, struck speechless. Ray and Zari who had also just walked up shared a look as the door reopened revealing a now robed John Constantine. 

She ignored their knowing stares. 

“How was I supposed to know they were coming?” she commented with a shrug as the crew of Legends quickly followed Nate and his father down the hall.

Sara hurried to greet them. 

“Mr. Heywood, welcome aboard. I see you’ve already had the complete tour.”

“He hasn’t seen the lab yet,” Mick interrupted. 

Everyone shook their head at Mick while Nate grinned. “That’s a great idea. Wait till you see this,” he said while dragging his dad along. 

The four hurried after them.

“Maybe your dad would like to see the galley?” Sara suggested.

“Or the cargo bay with all the crates?” Zari added.

Nate was a bit confused. 

“or the bathroom. It’s a marvel of efficiency,” Ray smiled.

Nate frowned.

“Look, you guys need to pull it together, okay? I know my dad sprung this on us, but we have dealt with crazier things then-…” he stopped, his eyes suddenly locked on the person both Ray and Sara had been trying hard to deflect him from. “Amiya?” 

The others sighed.

Nate’s dad stepped up, curious. 

“So, this is the ex-girlfriend you can’t shut up about?”

“Look, I’m sorry, I should, have told you,” Sara started, but Nate wasn’t hearing her. 

“She came back!” Nate exclaimed with excitement. “I knew she’d come back.”

“No, Nate, you don’t understand. That’s not…”

They hurried after him, but it was too late. He had already hugged Charlie. 

“You look beautiful,” Nate grinned.

Charlie scowled. “Get your stinking mitts off of me, you knob!” 

She threw a punch, catching Nate off guard. Everyone behind them gasped. Charlie turned around looking very, very confused as Zari hurriedly ushered Nate’s dad out the door.  
Nate stared at who he thought was still Amiya. “You’ve changed. What the hell is going? And what is with that accent? I mean I dig it, but what is going on?”

“Well, I’m not your disco loving ex, mate,” Charlie snapped.

Sara sighed. 

“Nate, meet the newest member of our team, Charlie.”

“Charlie here is a shape-shifter,” Ray explained, “Except she can no longer shape shift. It’s actually a pretty crazy story.”

“Let me guess,” Nate began, “She turned into Amiya and conned you guys into not sending her to hell, and then Constantine put a spell on her and now she’s stuck like this?”

Sara and the others gaped. 

Charlie whistled, impressed.

“That is weirdly accurate, yeah,” Sara confirmed. 

“Yeah,” agreed Ray. “I guess its not such a crazy story.”

“It’s insane, Ray!” Nate shouted. “I told my dad you guys were good at your jobs, and now you guys are adopting some magical creature who is pretending to be Amiya?”

“I’m not pretending to be anyone!” Charlie growled. 

“That said,” Sara interrupted, “Hank’s already looking for ways to slash our funding, so maybe it’s not the worst idea to fake it for one mission.”

“You want me to pretend to be this wanker’s ex?”

“What…” started Nate.

“Sounds like classic Legends hijinks to me,” Ray laughed.

“We can’t let Hank know we are harboring a fugitive. We just need to show him one mission and send him on his way before anything can go wrong,” Sara argued. 

“Okay, then maybe it wasn’t the best idea to leave him with those three,” Nate suddenly realized. 

Sara’s eyes widened. “We should go.”

“Yeah,” Nate agreed.

The three hurrying out, leaving Charlie to vent in the background. 

*LEGENDS*

“Drinking at work?” Hank asked, staring at Mick. 

Mick huffed. “Who said anything about work?”

Gideon began to ding. 

“Hey, Legends, you hear that? We have a hit on the magic sensor!” Nate and Sara called as they entered the room.

“Oh, where in history will we end up next?” Ray wondered out loud. 

“Where will it be? The wild west? Medieval China? Or…” Sara read the screen, “Paris in the roaring twenties!”

“Ooh, la, la,” Ray grinned.

“Gideon, plot a course!” Sara shouted.

“Yes Captain, right away,” she replied enthusiastically. 

“So, uh, explain to me how this magic sensor works,” Hank asked.

“Oh, well…” Ray began, only for Mick to cut in.

“Thing goes beep and we kick ass.”

“Meaning we investigate each time period,” Zari hurried to add. 

“Then we find the creature,” John continued. 

“And bring it to the time bureau,” Sara nodded.

“And hopefully learn some life lessons along the way,” Ray grinned.

“And it takes six of you to do that?” Hank wondered out loud.

“Seven if you count Amiya,” Sara confirmed. 

“Eight if you count me,” added Gideon. 

“Sounds a little inefficient,” Hank said, jotting it down on a notebook he had in his pocket. 

“Which is why…” Sara hurried to add in, “we separate into two very important teams. Zee, John, Ray, and Amiya will stay on the ship to quarterback the mission, while the rest of us go in search of whatever is wreaking havoc on gay Paree.”

“I thought that was, uh, impolitically correct,” Mick commented from the sideline. 

“Politically incorrect,” Zari stated, correcting Mick. 

“Hey, it’s our first mission together,” Nate hurried to reassure his dad and draw his attention away from his friends’ antics. “Don’t worry, if anything goes wrong in the field, I got you covered.”

Hank chuckled sarcastically. “Yeah, but I didn’t get coldcocked by a girl.”

Sara smirked, strolling ever so slowly forward. 

“Have you ever been hit by a girl, Hank?” Sara smiled coldly. 

“No, Ma’am,” Hank replied.

“Hmm…we should head out,” Sara replied, still smiling. 

Nate had a feeling things would only get worse. 

Paris, 1927

“Okay, let’s practice our accents,” Ray began, “Charlie, in case you go into the field, you need to be able to speak American, so let’s try it.”

She sighed, looking at Zari and John who were both reading in the small office for any help, but neither came to her aid. Sucking it up, she began to speak. 

“My name is Amiya Jiwe of the uh- the Justice Society of-…” she sighed. “Complete and utter bloody rubbish, wasn’t it?”

“Yup, it sucked,” Zari confirmed.

“Now just remember, the yanks, they don’t say ‘rubbish’,” John reminded her. “They’d say ‘that was absolute garbage. I’m American, soccer, yardsticks, ranch dressing, weasel.”  
Ray stared at John, both amused and somewhat impressed. 

“You know what, I quit,” Charlie replied, nodding. “Yeah. I’d rather get some fresh air then pretend to be this twee old nag.”

“You can’t quit, she can’t quit!” Ray shouted after her. “Sara needs us to quarterback the mission.”

“You don’t really think that’s why she left us here, do you?” Zari asked him.

“Nah, she just doesn’t want us making a scene in front of Nate’s dad,” John agreed.

“Efficiency is the new watchword, and while Hank is around, the three of us…”

“Four if you count Charlie,” John added.

“Five if you count me,” Gideon spoke up.

Zari rolled her eyes. “…are extraneous.”

Ray sighed, looking down, and John knew exactly what was on her friend’s mind. 

“You know mate, you could just walk right off this ship and no one would even bleeding notice.”

Ray hummed. “May have to test that theory. Except I’m not walking. I’m taking the jump ship.”

John smirked as she watched Ray walk out, leaving her behind with Zari.

*LEGENDS*

John was sitting back in her own room, which was technically the ships former study, when a knock sounded on the door.

“Come in,” she called.

Zari stepped in, a small bowl of fruit in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other. 

“Care for a chat?”

John stood up, a bit confused and more than a little suspicious. Noticing her expression, Zari smiled regretfully. 

“You and I got off to a bad start last time and… well, we talked about not knowing one another well, so I wanted to take this time and get to know you. Is that okay?”

John huffed a laugh, but waved her in. Zari smiled and sat down, her posture giving away her own nerves. 

“You seem comfortable in this room, but we have spare bedrooms. Do you not want one for yourself?”

John sighed.

“This room reminds me a lot of my home. It was more a study than a house, so… no, this is perfect. I slept on the couch a lot there too, expect for when… well, when I didn’t.”

Zari knew that certainly wasn’t what John was originally going to say, but she didn’t push. This wasn’t an interrogation. Just a friendly ‘getting to know you’ chat, now that they had some spare time. 

“Did you live alone?” Zari questioned curiously.

John’s expression darkened and Zari sighed, realizing she had inadvertently stepped on yet another landmine. It seemed easy to do around Constantine.

“Sorry, never mind. What about friends? Did you go to college or…?”

John stood up suddenly. 

“Look, Zari, I thank you for considering me, love, but… my past is pretty dark. Whatever it is you want to know, just ask. I either will or I won’t answer. Don’t bloody flutter around me. I’m not glass, and I’m not broken.”

Zari nodded, feeling a bit guilty, though she didn’t know why.

“Then, your roommates,” she began, going back to her original question. “Did you have any?”

“Yes, two of them,” John replied. “More if you count the various magical beings within its walls.”

“Magical beings?”

John nodded, but didn’t say anything more, so Zari took that as her having finished answering.

“Okay, do you want to ask me a question?”

John studied the woman.

“Any siblings?”

She smiled sadly. “One, a brother. He died a long time ago.”

John nodded in understanding. 

“You?” she countered. 

John sighed. “An older sister named Mary, but we were never close. She was a lot older than me, and when she got married and had kids, well... we didn't keep in touch. I don’t even know where they live anymore.”

“Ah,” Zari nodded.

The two sat in silence for a moment, sipping their whiskey. 

“Do you have hobbies? You know, outside smoking, drinking, and everything else you regularly do involving magic.”

John chuckled at that. 

“The occult has always been my main hobby, but… when I was a kid… I did have an interest in music.”

“Oh, did you play anything?” Zari asked curiously. 

John hesitated. 

“Yeah… a couple things. My sister got me a harmonica once for Christmas. I was able to learn it for a while before my dad found it and burned it.”

Zari frowned and John shrugged.

“It’s the past. Anyways, I also was able to play the drums, the bass, and the guitar. I taught myself the drums, but the other two my former band mates taught me when we were in Mucous Membrane.”

“Oh, that’s right. You did say you were in a band.”

John nodded. 

“Yeah, me and my pals, Natalie, Chas, Richie, Gary, and Anne-Marie. We were all inseparable. Well…” she laughed bitterly, “until the Newcastle ordeal at least.”

“I read about that,” Zari nodded. At John’s look, she hurried to add, “I mean, I read what was written, but I’m sure there is more to it than what those reports said, knowing you as well as I currently do.”

John hummed. “I wish that was true.”

Zari stayed silent, waiting.

“It’s a long time ago Zee, but… the story is simple. I tried to use a demon to fight another demon and something went wrong. A little girl… Astra… she was dragged into Hell instead. I was there and I was meant to protect her. I was the one who thought it all up. It had been my idea, I was the leader, and she paid the price. All of them did.”

“Even you,” Zari stated, not as a question, but as a fact. “I can see that you did.”

John didn’t argue, but her face plainly showed her disagreement with that statement. 

“So, what then?”

“Well, we split up, obviously. Now they are all dead. Every single one of them, that is, except Anne-Marie.”

“Anne-Marie?”

“Yeah,” John choked on a laugh. “She’s a nun now. This girl used to be a punk rocker like the rest of us and now she’s a nun. It’s a laugh, ain’t it?”

Zari smiled, but she could see the pain behind John’s laughter. She looked more like she was crying. 

“This all happened recently?” Zari asked.

“No, as I said, it was a while ago,” John sighed, “I was seventeen then. All of us mostly children, who thought we knew best. Turns out we were wrong.” 

“Is that when you started doing what you do now? After Newcastle? You know, as an exorcist I mean.”

“No,” John took another shot of whiskey, “after the events of that day, I went into Ravenscar for a while.”

Seeing Zari’s confusion, John chuckled. 

“An asylum.”

Zari gaped. “But John, you’re not…”

“What? Crazy? Out of my mind? Insane?” she laughed again. The sound nearly manic, and Zari felt herself shiver involuntarily. “Depends on who you ask, love.”

Zari was silent as John guzzled yet another shot glass without any signs of drunkenness. 

“So, you were alone after that? All these years, until you met us?” Zari frowned.

John sighed. 

“Didn’t I say I had roommates? I wasn’t alone. After I came out of Ravenscar, Chas…” her eyes softened, and Zari chose not to bring attention to the moisture that could be seen gathering in the corners of John’s eyes. 

“Chas was there,” was finally all John could say.

Zari started to ask more, but John shook her head as though clearing it, before prattling on.

“And Liv. When Liv left, Zed came. When I met you guys, Zed left. Simple as that.”

Zari had a feeling that nothing about any of that was simple. Nothing about John, was simple. 

“Excuse me,” Gideon’s voice cut in. “Ms. Constantine, there is an incoming transmission from Captain Lance.”

Taking another gulp of alcohol, John was relieved for the distraction. 

“Let’s hear it, Gideon.”

“John?” Sara’s voice echoed throughout the room, “We have a problem.”

*LEGENDS*

John was still working on a solution to their Minotaur problem when Sara, Charlie, and Nate walked in.

“We need to bag ourselves a Minotaur,” Sara stated bluntly, “Before your dad gets himself killed.”

“Ugh,” Nate and the others wrinkled up their noses in disgust. “What is that smell? Did you guys get a team dog without me? Because that was my idea. I bet you guys are having after-mission pizza parties now too.”

Sara sighed and walked closer to John.

“This is the musk of a female Minotaur,” John explained, holding up a small smoking lamp, “See, Minotaur’s have a very sharp sense of smell when it comes to tracking prey, but with this bad boy, I can lure it in by convincing it that I’m a potential mate.”

“Then what?” Charlie asked with amusement, “You two going to ride off together? Get a nice little flat in Soho?”

“It’s good John,” Sara praised, “but we still need a way to tame it and get it to the Bureau.”

“Oh!” Nate snapped his fingers. “Taming the beast. Taming the beast. I read about this. I read about this. Um, let’s see, ‘The Magical Treatise of Solomon’, yeah, here we go,” he muttered as he grabbed a book from the shelves and began to read. “To ease the Minotaur’s rage, his mother would play him a lullaby on a lute built by Daedalus.”

“That’s it!” Sara exclaimed, “we lure it in and then we lull it to sleep.”

“No one gets hurt, not even the Minotaur,” agreed Charlie.

“And then we will have a pizza party,” Nate nodded.

*LEGENDS*

“Up on your feet already, Hank?” Sara asked, walking into the control room with John, Nate, and Charlie at her side. 

“Your girl patched me up good. I’m just running through our strategy.”

“Oh, wait, you let him use our ‘D&D’ miniatures?” John questioned, stunned. 

“No, I didn’t let him touch Cyndra, Lord of the Dark Elves,” Zari reassured her. 

She knew how much John enjoyed dungeon and dragons, and especially prized her character, the dark elf Cyndra, who specializes in archery, magic, and daggers. 

“You guys ‘D&D’ without me too?” Nate exclaimed in disbelief. 

“Son, why are you holding a tiny guitar? Or do I even want to know?”

“Oh this? This is a lute.”

“Someone say Loot?” Mick grunted awake.

“This is what we will use to put the Minotaur to sleep.”

“I thought you said that was loot?” Mick asked again, half groggy. 

“I don’t understand,” Hank questioned.

“Well I suppose it is more of a lyre,” John confirmed. 

“Everyone’s a liar,” Mick said as he drifted back into unconsciousness. 

“This is how we’re going to catch our creature, dad.”

“That’s your plan?” Hank laughed.

“Yeah…” Nate replied.

“We are facing a literal Monster. You think you can destroy it with a lute?”

“Well in the hands of a master, a lute is a formidable weapon. Just look at sting, mate,” John tried to inject. 

“Sorry to interrupt,” Gideon cut back in, “but there has been a change in the timeline. An attack at Café du Dome is imminent,” the ship reported. “There will be no survivors.”

“The Minotaur must be tracking Hemingway’s scent,” John confirmed.

“Let’s move out then,” Hank sighed.

Nate stepped in front of his dad.

“Nathaniel, get out of my way.”

“I don’t have to do what you say anymore, Hank,” Nate responded, eyes serious.

“Really? Because as your superior, I am telling you to stand down.”

“Your going to the superior thing again?” Nate asked.

Behind them, John and Sara shared a look. 

“You know Hank, you don’t want to listen or understand me. You just… you just want to be better than me.”

“Well you’re one to talk about listening. You’ve ignored every lesson I’ve ever tried to teach you.”

“Because it’s the same lesson over and over again!” Nate snapped back. “You want me to be like you, Hank. But guess what? I’m not like you. I don’t like televised golf, or Tom Clancy books, or 70’s folk rock. I don’t know if you happened to notice, but I’m a grown-ass superhero who is just trying to play a lute for a Minotaur.”

Yeah, that sounded weak.

“Fine… don’t want to listen to your old man?” Hank interjected, “Maybe you will listen to your Captain.”

Sara shrugged. 

“I’m sorry, but I’m with Nate. I know his idea sounds crazy, but he’s right. That’s what makes him a Legend, no matter where he is. You said you wanted to see a Legend’s mission? Well you are about to. And if it goes wrong, well, you can go ahead and fire all of us.”

*LEGENDS*

The legends just arrived in time to see the Minotaur going after Hemingway. 

“Hey, fuzz ball!” John shouted, rushing in, “Have a nice little whiff of this, will you?”

“That’s your que,” Sara confirmed. 

“Okay,” Nate sighed, “I haven’t had much time to rehearse, but… here it goes.”

With a deep breath, Nate began to play the lute as John continued to hold the musk up for the beast, allowing it to fully relax. Slowly, assuredly, the Minotaur began to doze. And then, the idiot that is Hemingway drew a gun.

“Time to end this…”

“No!” Sara shouted, kicking the gun away, but the problem is, it still went off and with it… the Minotaur awoke. Sara decked Hemingway, turning just in time to see the beast swing and strike Nate, flinging him across the room into a glass table. 

“Nathaniel!” Hank shouted.

The beast then went for John, also shoving her back into another table. 

Nate sighed, seeing the lute was destroyed. “I always preferred Faulkner!”

The Minotaur began its rampage. 

Sara tossed a glass bottle at the Minotaur, but other than shattering, nothing happened. She shouted to the people scrambling around her. “Get behind the bar!”

Next, she hit the Minotaur with a chair, and this time, the beast let out a groan of pain. 

Ducking, Sara jumped and dove behind a second smaller bar just in time, as the Minotaur’s axe swung down. 

The Minotaur then started after another person cowering in the corner, only for Hank to suddenly shout at it.

“You leave that weirdo alone! Your fight is with me!”

The beast snarled, spinning and coming at the man, and Hank became nervous. To the side, Nate ripped a tablecloth off a table without a single spill, and approached the beast, waving the cloth around. 

“Toro! Toro! Come on, baby. Now the dance begins.”

The Minotaur attacked.

Despite Nate’s attempts, the Minotaur caught him by the throat. 

“Over here!” Hank shouted, quickly grabbing a guitar. 

To everyone’s surprise, Hank began to sing. 

Nate, Sara, and John could only stare in surprise as the Minotaur’s actions began to lessen and though it drew close the singing man, it never attacked. 

The song worked its magic, and slowly the Minotaur fell fast asleep.

Sara smiled. 

“Now that, is how you finish a Legend’s mission.”

Hank turned to Nate, pride radiating in his eyes. “You did good, son.”

“Right back at you, dad,” Nate grinned.

“I learned it from you, Nathaniel,” Hank replied and held out his hand for a handshake.

And for Nate, that was the greatest compliment and honor his dad could give him. 

*LEGENDS*

“Pizza party time!” Sara yelled back on the ship. 

“Here he is!” Mick shouted, pleased, as Nate walked into the kitchen behind her. 

“Hey!” Nate greeted. 

“Hey!” everyone else yelled.

“Welcome back, ugly,” Mick teased.

“Yeah, so, what other bright ideas are you going to leave us with, before you bugger off?” John joked.

Nate patted John’s arm, thinking. “Softball team!”

“Oh no, only electronic sports,” Zari disagreed.

“Pinata Fridays,” he tried again.

“How many times do I have to say no to that?” Sara questioned.

“Unionizing,” Nate said as his third item.

Sara chuckled. “Ooh, don’t let Hank hear you say that.”

“You know, it’s still weird not having you around,” Ray admitted with a sigh. 

“Mm-hmm,” agreed Sara.

“Aw, man, I’ll always be right there, big guy, in that giant heart of yours. And, I will be at the Bureau, so you guys can literally stop by whenever you want. But, you know, before I go… I do want to say one thing.” 

He took a deep breath. 

“When I first stepped onto this ship, I was, as most of you know, trying to get away from all my baggage back home, and I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but Hemingway once wrote, ‘Can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.’ Thanks to you guys, I don’t have to run anymore. Being here with you all has turned me into the man I need to be, and uh, this place…this ship, it’s special.” 

He looked at the newest members for a second before looking at the older ones. 

“…And you never know when it’s going to be over. So, I say, Legends, enjoy the ride while it lasts.”

“Hear, hear,” toasted Sara. 

“Cheers!”

“Cheers!” everyone else added, clicking their glasses together.

Nate stepped over to Charlie. 

“You…” he smiled apologetically, “you’ll find your place here. I know I did.”


End file.
